Terraside
by Fire2TheMax
Summary: In part 2 of The Iversen Legacy, Kraglin and Sonia's bonds are put to the test as they are separated by most of the Galaxy. Sonia faces some lonely introspection while Kraglin must fight his way back to her. Can their new relationship survive?
1. Arrest - Kraglin

**Here it is! The long-awaited part 2! Fair warning, this one is going to be fairly Sonia-heavy and for now, I'm only going to upload one chapter at a time. They are quite a bit longer than the old set and I didn't get a chance to get ahead in these chaotic few weeks since I last posted.**

**In the meantime, enjoy this St. Patrick's Day present! Get drunk, find a gun!**

"So, I'm not going to become a werepanther?"

Even to me, the question sounded stupid. I felt a surge of relief as Sonia shook her head. This remarkable young woman from Terra, who, with sheer luck and patience on my part, has accepted me into her life. Even spending the precious night with me in a way that I never would've thought possible when we first met. She was still wildly unpredictable and fierce as fire, but I wouldn't want her any other way. For the first time in my life, I thought myself happier than I ever dared to hope I would be. We were joined in a way that not even Yondu could understand and we would ride out our captain's wrath together.

But, that being said, she'd really scratched the shit out of my back while we were having sex.

"As far as I know, you should be fine." Sonia said, "I think werewolves operate differently than werepanthers. I'm not sure, but I think I'd be able to tell if you were going to change as well."

She was referring to the myths I'd been reading up on while she was injured and I had nothing better to do while waiting for her to recover. They covered a range of topics from diet to infection rates, the latter being the most crucial at this moment. It was a great distraction at the time. There was a lot of information on 'werewolves' but I couldn't find any information on her exact species, so I wondered if they were rare. I knew that she was really young when she'd been kidnapped from Terra and subsequently enslaved, but her lack of knowledge was really alarming considering what was at stake. I raised an eyebrow at her words. "You're not sure?"

She shook her head yet again, "No one I have ever scratched has become like me. I scratched you last week, remember? You're fine."

"Oh, I don't know about that… I growled at you while we were kissing yesterday…" I said sheepishly. It was really weird and out of character and I didn't want to think of what other changes were in store for me if I were to end up fully transforming into a giant cat, like her.

Sonia shrugged. "I don't really have a concrete idea of what is considered normal when it comes to this. I didn't have any problems with it, though."

I grinned. I'd been with women before who liked it rough, even so, I'd still have to restrain myself until we fully established a pattern. This was new to both of us, most of all her, so it wouldn't do to go mucking it up. I didn't want to ruin this for anything in the world. I gently grabbed her arm and pulled her down onto my lap. Sonia relented awkwardly, still incredibly new to this closeness. I chuckled to myself.

"What?" She asked, her emerald eyes clouding as she started to go on guard. She was still so easily spooked.

"I was just thinking about how lucky I am. Especially considering how easily this could have gone sour." I paused, thinking. "You think you'll ever lighten up? You trust me now, right?" I could feel a slight frown on my face.

Sonia twisted in my lap to face me, deliberately taking the time to straddle me between her legs. She rested her arms on my shoulders, fully capturing my attention as she locked her eyes with were back to normal, a clear, deep green, and she leaned forward to bring her lips to mine.

Unlike our last kisses, this one was gentle and almost apologetic. I could feel Sonia melt into me and I brought my hands up around her back in return. I was again reminded of her unusual temperature, almost as high as mine as her heat crashed into me. I had a vague moment of wondering if that had to do with her being a werepanther, but it was chased from my mind as she broke the kiss.

I opened my eyes to her face centimeters from mine. Sonia gave me a smile, the biggest I've ever gotten from her.

"Yes. I do trust you."

I smiled so hard that I thought my face would crack. I'd been waiting to hear those words since I'd first learned of her dual nature. I tangled my fingers in her black hair and crushed her against my chest, afraid to let this moment, or her, go.

***~~~n^o^n~~~***

The sound of the alarm bounced its way around the interior of my ship as Sonia and I looked up from her reading lesson in surprise. It had only been a few hours since she'd revealed that she trusted me, (finally) and after another round in the sheets we were moving onto more pressing matters. Like her illiteracy. Sonia shot me a confused look as I stood and made my way towards the overhead screen. I was especially confused, as that alarm meant that we were being tailed for some reason even though my scrambler was set to cloak us.

"That's odd…" I voiced my thoughts aloud as I pulled over the pad and put the stats on the screen. I studied them for a few minutes to figure out why the alarm was going off when a voice came over the interior speakers.

"This is the Nova Corps, please cease the flight protocols on your ship. You are being placed under arrest."

I glanced at Sonia, who mirrored my confused look.

"Can we lose them?" She asked.

I shook my head.

"My M-ship may be fast, but the Nova Ships are faster and have a stunning tractor to stop us. What I don't understand is how they detected us…." I tapped a couple commands into the pad to assess the settings on my scrambler. Turns out it was turned off. Did I forget to turn it back on when we left The Hub? No, I was positive that I turned it back on after that. Diligency in our scramblers is one of the first lessons drilled into the heads of rookie Ravagers.

"Did you turn off the scrambler?" I asked Sonia warily. I knew that she had a tendency to hit commands at random when the pad confused or angered her, which was all the time.

"Maybe." She shrugged in reply. "How would I know?"

I let out a deep sigh and rubbed my temples, swallowing my instant surge of anger. This couldn't be happening. I never thought that her illiteracy would compromise the entire mission, or I would have addressed the issue sooner. It'd be one thing if I had a crew or a few more ships, we could maneuver our way out of there. However, in all of my years as a Ravager, I'd never encountered this problem. It was possible we'd be able to take them once they boarded, though. They couldn't call for back-up from our ship.

"Sonia, shift." I commanded. Her human hand-to-hand combat was still slightly lacking. Sonia shot me a slightly peeved off look before removing her clothes and shifting. She could stay mad at me ordering her around for all I cared; I was much, _much_ higher ranking than her, despite us sleeping together. Also, this was _her_ fucking fault.

As she stretched out her long panther body the hatch opened and two Nova officers charged inside. "Shit." I muttered as I stood and hastily drew my blaster, only to find two of the them already trained on my face. Warily, I raised my hands as Sonia growled her displeasure.

"Don't move," the officer closest to me ordered. I said nothing but shot him a nasty look in return. Sonia kept up her growling and out of the corner of my eye, I could see her advancing on the Nova Corpsman. I knew that she didn't like seeing me threatened, even before we became… ah… 'more familiar.'

The second officer wasted no time in aiming his stunner at Sonia and firing.

"Hey!" I shouted in rage, reaching again for my blaster. I ducked low, grabbing it from where it'd been dropped a few seconds prior. I took a moment to steal a glance at Sonia, who was still conscious, but stunned to the ground. They'd have to turn up the voltage to fully knock her out.

Before the Corpsman could adjust his aim, I dodged to the side and rolled behind the table before coming out the other side, with my blaster already trained and firing before my opponent could track my movement. I hit him in the head, knocking his head back and causing his helmet to fly off.

His partner, however, was much quicker and the second I turned to him, I was being hit with return fire square in the chest. The flooring of my ship quickly flew up to catch me as I hit heavily. The wind was knocked out of me, I slowly brought my eyes to meet Sonia's before my consciousness faded into black.

As soon as I opened my eyes again, I could tell that they'd taken us aboard their ship to process us for detainment. I was in a laser cell of what was obviously their transport ship. They must have found the Dervish Moss on our ship. I hadn't bothered hiding it as the scrambler _should have been on._ I gritted my teeth in irritation for Sonia's blunder as I spied her in the cell next to mine. She was still in her panther form, but awake and looking anxious.

Once I met her golden eyes, she relaxed a little.

"I'm fine," I whispered, not wanting the Corpsmen to hear me talking to what they presumed to be an animal. It was probably best that they continued thinking of her that way, as she was unregistered and her jail time would be extended as a result, besides the fact that I had no idea how she would fare in jail. I'd probably never see her again due to the extension she'd rack up killing everyone who got near her. I just hoped that she behaved so they wouldn't ship her off to disposal, instead. With any luck they'd put her in impound until I busted out or served my time. They only needed to not know that she was sentient.

I sorely wished that there was a way to get a message to Yondu. He was going to be absolutely furious that we'd been held up yet again. I had to figure a way out of here and fast.

I stood up as the Nova officer who'd stunned Sonia approached. He was the same one that I'd shot down, he seemed to have recovered well enough, much to my dislike. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"We just completed a scan of your ship, Kraglin Obfonteri, as well as your personal records. You're being placed under arrest for your outstanding warrants as well as traveling with an illegal scrambler and 17 grets of Dervish Moss." The officer read from his personal pad.

Wow, 17 grets? Sonia really must have packed that bag to bursting considering the fact that she managed to collect only moss without any attached dirt. Damn, that could have paid for this entire trip and more, even after Yondu's cut.

The officer went on, "Your ship is currently being towed and you will soon be at The Xilvarn Penitentiary."

Xilvarn? That wasn't too bad. Looks like The Kiln was still being rebuilt, which was good. Xilvarn would prove easy enough to escape. I knew the layout of that one well enough from breaking other crewmates out. The officer's eyes slid over to Sonia in the cell next to mine. She started up a low growl at his look and bared her teeth, keeping her head low to the ground.

"What is it with you Ravagers and your apparent fascination with Terra?" He asked, crouching down to get a better look at Sonia, who snarled in response, flexing her claws. Luckily, it seemed that she knew better than to touch the lasers. "The Corps will probably want it put down, it looks too dangerous. Why do you keep it around?" The officer never took his eyes off of Sonia, which sent a surge of anger rushing through me. He was planning on keeping her for himself, I bet.

"She's a pet." I replied cooly.

Sonia redoubled her growling at that. I knew she didn't like being referred to as such, but it was extremely necessary at the moment. I glared at her from my cell. Trying to telepathically convey the need to _behave_. She never took her eyes off of the Nova Corpsman, however.

"'She'?" The officer asked, still not looking back at me. Why couldn't I draw his attention away?

I had a clever reply on my tongue when I saw the air around Sonia begin to shimmer. Shit. Within seconds she stood, fully nude, on two feet. The officer looked up in awe and also stood up to better meet her eyes, which were golden and sparked in anger. She was absolutely pissed.

"She's a…" the moron was nearly rendered speechless so I offered another suitable explanation.

"Slave." I said firmly, letting my irritation show. "She's just a slave."

**Alright, jumping right in. Hopefully I can get this one to get off the ground a little bit faster. The last one had a bit of rocky start and this one is mostly fleshed out, idea-wise, I just need to fully decide the pacing and then get it written down, obviously. Let me know what you think~  
~F2tM**


	2. Betrayed! - Sonia

**Here's the second chapter! Hope everyone had a good week! Now, I must get busy on chapter three for you!**

I felt like I'd been socked in the stomach. Nothing more than a _slave!?_ I thought we were _partners_. Refusing to let my pain at Kraglin's betrayal show, I steadied my gaze at the Nova officer and glared. His eyes traveled around my body and I let out a harsh snarl, recapturing his attention with my sharp teeth. His eyes narrowed after a second.

"Oh really, _just_ a slave?" He raised an eyebrow, hoping Kraglin would catch his drift.

I heard Kraglin give a small snort. "You know as well as I do how very capable we Xandarians are of having emotionless sex."

My growl was too soft for either of them to pick up the choking sound that resulted from the sudden closure of my throat. I kept all emotions firmly tucked away as I forced air in and out of my lungs as normal. How could I have been so clueless? The first time he saw me as a human, I was naked. Of course that's all he actually wanted from me.

I'd fully regained myself and channelled my pain into pure anger. It burned white-hot as I felt my claws grow to match my teeth. The guard's eyes were fully locked onto this new development.

"You're not a Terran, are you?" He questioned, narrowing his brown eyes at me.

"One hundred percent." I answered, refusing to meet Kraglin's eyes. There was nothing there for me anymore. I could smell fear coming off of the officer in waves as my teeth were bared in his direction. It was painfully obvious that he had no idea what he was currently dealing it.

The officer moved over to an onset computer near the doorway and started entering a few commands. A harsh red light emanated from the flooring of my cell, causing me to jump back in alarm for fear of injury. It turned out to be harmless and faded in a few seconds. After a few more seconds the officer nodded.

"Jiru! Open cell two and get in contact with our Terran rep," the officer shouted behind him, still looking at the readouts. "Congratulations, Mr. Obfonteri, you've now got 'illegal trafficking of an unregistered sentient species' added to your charges."

I heard Kraglin expel a small burst of air. Not quite a sigh, but almost like a cross between relief and irritation. The officer looked back in my direction, not quite meeting my eyes. I crossed my arms to discourage anymore visual wanderings and intensified my glare. I didn't shift back so I could continue to have a say in my matters.

There was a slight buzz as the laser cell was deactivated, but I made no motion to move. The officer in front of me turned and grabbed set of clothes out of a nearby drawer and threw them in my direction, which I dodged and let fall on the floor behind me.

"Put those on and prepare for departure."

I did no such thing. "I want my own stuff." I declared. I wasn't about to let what few possessions I had out of my grasp that quickly. I raised my chin as the officer looked at my face to determine if I was serious.

"We'll swing by Obfonteri's ship on the way to Terra."

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Kraglin whip his head over to face me. I didn't return the look.

"Terra?" I asked. I didn't want to go to Terra.

"When we find slaves, we return them to their planet of origin. Even if it's a severely underdeveloped rock more than a quadrant away," the officer said, his irritation apparent. He didn't want to take me there any more than I wanted to go. "Nova Corps policy." And with that, he left to head to the flight deck.

Bugger. I crouched down and shifted back. I padded out of the cell and towards the front of the ship, ignoring the stares from the second officer. It appeared as though I had some kind of immunity that granted me safe passage to Terra. _Only_ to Terra. I considered telling them for a second that I was Kraglin's partner, but no one had really ever put too much stock in my words before. Also, due to the fact that I was unregistered, I essentially had no vote. They would believe Kraglin's story of me being his slave over mine. Looks like I was stuck going to Terra. This really sucked. As I got closer, I could hear the officer who'd thrown me the clothes talking to someone over the Com.

"No sir, she's actually human. We thought she was an animal at first, but she can change forms." the officer, was reporting.

"Change forms?" The voice echoed. "Terrans can't do that unless heavily infected by gamma rays."

"Her bioscans read Terran. There is no overreaction of gamma rays, we checked that. So far, it appears to be a natural ability, either way, we need you to place her once we leave her to you," the officer was saying.

"What?" A voice responded, "How am I supposed to place her? Who the hell is she?"

The second officer, Jiru, looked up as I approached. He shot a confused look at the first, who rolled his eyes in response. I'm sure he had doubts about my nature since I'd shifted back. I narrowed my eyes and hissed at him, just for good measure. Feeling a surge of pride at the sudden fear scent.

"We're not sure, we can't find any record of her. She was most likely obtained by illegal means, although we have no idea how long she's been off Terra."

"Get me a name. I'll do the rest. Oh, and by the way, we _Terrans_ like to call it 'Earth'," and with that final note, the call was disconnected. I could tell by his voice, that this was a man who was used to giving orders instead of receiving them. He was probably going to be just as happy about this arrangement as I was.

The nameless officier let out a groan of frustration. Good. He turned back to me, his look of displeasure grew when he saw that I'd shifted back. I growled in return, feeling my hackles raise. I wasn't shifting back until I'd gotten _my_ clothes. And if I was feeling nice, I might actually tell them my name.

The officer finally got us onto his smaller Nova issued spacecraft and true to his word, we made a stop at Kraglin's ship, which was indeed being towed. I wondered what they were going to do with it. I'd avoided thinking about how Kraglin had just stabbed me in the back but with his scent everywhere it was impossible. I blinked back the sadness and proceeded to head down to the living area of the ship.

I went over to the bed, where I'd thrown my clothes in haste earlier and shifted back. I started putting the clothes on when I spotted one of Kraglin's few knives laying on the small shelf next to the bunk. I quickly grabbed it and put it in my boot before the officer followed me down. No way was I going to travel in my human form without some sort of protection. The officer made his way down mere moments after my pant leg dropped to conceal my weapon.

"Hurry up, we have a long way to travel."

I scowled at him and took one last look around the interior of the ship. This place was more home to me than Terra was. Even with the pain of betrayal fresh on my mind, I couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness as I realized I'd probably never see this place again. Finally, I turned and walked up the ladder and out of the ship. I boarded the Nova officer's ship and mentally bade a final farewell to Kraglin.

It was difficult to even imagine that I was going back to Terra. Of course, I'd dreamed about it as a kid. Dreamed and hoped and wished against all odds. However, as I grew older, I slowly came to the realization that it was something that was never going to happen. That if I wanted to survive in the cold galaxy, I needed to put those childish dreams aside and accept my life as it was.

All through the ride, I tried to focus on what was sure to be the strangest of homecomings, however, I couldn't get Kraglin out of my thoughts. I kept seeing that last look on his face that I'd glimpsed out of the corner of my eye as the officer and I were departing the ship. He'd looked upset, but I couldn't tell who it was aimed at.

Although I was drowsy, I refused to sleep in a place such as this. The Corps officer, I finally learned that his name was Bantu, conked out almost immediately. I wasn't sure how long this journey was set to take, but it turned out to be an uncomfortable couple of weeks. The transport ship was small, with only one bunk and a tiny lavatory directly behind the control board. It seemed as though these ships weren't made for anything long-distance. What a shame for Bantu and I.

The utter silence was driving him mad. I could tell, but I refused to speak to him. I was terrible at small-talk and I sure as hell wasn't about to give him my name. I'd wait until I met this Terran contact to see if he could actually get me to my family. _Then_ I'd relinquish it, but in the meantime, I wasn't about to fall for any silly traps.

I had a lot of free time to sit and think on this unexpected journey through the Galaxy. I sat, reclined back in the co-pilot's chair with my feet propped up on the consoles. Bantu gave up trying to move me after the first day or so. I was left with the intensity of my mind, a place that I was more than familiar with. Being a slave of any sorts means a lot of time with yourself, trying to keep ahold of yourself and retain that one thing that makes you _you_. Since coming into Kraglin's care, I hadn't felt the need to visit some of the darker corners. Maybe it was time to clean out some cobwebs.

Dark memories are like monsters. They lie in wait for you to let your guard down and then will attack mercilessly. It is sometimes possible to beat them back, but they are never held at bay forever. After a seemingly harmless event they might surface and they do so in strange and different ways, like Kraglin's nightmares. Throughout the years I'd been plagued periodically with my own memories. The memories of what I'd seen, the memories of what I'd done. Just when I'd start to think that I'd found some ray of happiness, I was transported back to the first time I killed a man. At seven years old. Being with Kraglin had been the longest reprieve I'd ever known. As reluctant as I was to give it up, there was nothing I could do to go back to him. I couldn't believe that he would just throw me aside like that, but I'd fallen for stupider ploys. I was more angry at myself in this folly than anything else. I'd put my trust in poorer places, but it had been ages since that had happened. I wasn't a cub anymore, so why was I thinking like one?

What was it about Kraglin that seemed to alter my brain? There was something about him. Even his scent was like a calming drug on me. I couldn't always think straight when I was around him. I'd even given myself to him physically. Openness and laughter, love and affection; these were things I'd given up on. I figured I'd never find them. People like me don't get to enjoy nice things. We don't get happiness. We don't get to fall in love.

I felt my face scrunch up as I thought harder about that word. 'Love.' It was always just a word to me. Something uttered when too many drinks had been consumed. I'd never had a grasp on its actual concept. I'd seen others in closeness, I'd felt the warmth and comfort of my brothers. But what was 'love' exactly? I sorely wish that I'd had a chance to talk to Kraglin about it before all of this mess happened.

After working myself into a mess about things I didn't understand, my mind turned yet again to Kraglin. Why did it always come back to him? I wondered if I'd ever be able to shake him. By the end of the trip, though, I'd spent more time obsessing over what I may or may not have had with him then I'd actually spent _with_ him. I gave a mental sigh. What the _fuck_ was wrong with me? I inhaled deeply, drawing his scent in. He was still all over me. Even after multiple showers in the ship's impossibly small lavatory, he was on my skin, in my clothes, he had somehow managed to weave himself into my very being. A small burst of anger flared. How _dare_ he!

After what seemed like an eternity, Terra's surface could finally be seen through the main view and we started our descent. Among the multitude of emotions swirling inside of me, fear and curiosity tended to reign supreme. This was sure to be the most interesting of trips. When the cloud cover dissipated, I found myself overlooking a giant city. Terra's sun bounced off the gleaming metallic structures as I failed to glimpse even a tree. My heart fell. I couldn't survive in this fake, manufactured place.

Bantu landed the craft gingerly on the roof of one of the tallest, most central buildings and proceeded to power down. I could see some sort of triangular symbol on the side of the building, but it wasn't covered in my latest reading lesson. I resisted the urge to squirm in my seat as a feeling of great unease settled itself in the pit of my stomach like a great beast. I exited the ship after Bantu like a beaten animal. Which, to a certain extent, was exactly what I was. I crept into the bright sun slowly and kept a sharp look-out. I didn't know if we could be readily spotted up here, nor if I was a target, but I wasn't about to let myself be caught off-guard again. I narrowed my eyes as a door opened from a small square structure that was on the roof directly across from us and a tall dark-haired man with a goatee, wearing a pair of jeans and a tight-fitting shirt approached us. He was wearing a long overcoat with his hand stuffed in his pockets and his shoulders drawn up to partially cover his ears. Who was _this_ goofus?

"Couldn't call with a heads-up? A little bit of an ETA would have nice so as to avoid this potential PR crisis on my hands. Thanks for that, I love press conferences." I recognized the irritated, snarky voice instantly. For being someone who clearly has such a high opinion of himself, his dressing habits seemed wildly out of place here. _Then again…._ I thought as a mental picture of Yondu's face flashed in my mind.

"Glad you're out here to greet us," Bantu said formally, "If I had known that, I wouldn't have cut the engine. Well, here's the Terran. If you could just sign this form here, proving that I delivered her safely I'll be going now."

The man sighed and walked over to sign the pad with his finger. Bantu looked it over and nodded in satisfaction before heading back to his ship.

"Pleasure doing business with you Mr. Stark."

**Oh look! A new player to the game!**

**~F2tM**


	3. Stark - Sonia

**Okay, here's chapter 3! So, I've been slowly collecting some songs in the last week that remind me of situations or characters and was thinking of doing some sort of contest with them? Like, maybe at the end I'll release the playlist (with a few hints) and if you can correctly match the songs you win... my notes? Of which there are currently 4 pages of, but will probably grow by then. Thoughts? I mean, I'm going to put the playlist up anyways, but I thought it'd be fun.**

**~~~**

Once Bantu's ship was out of sight, the man turned towards me and stuck out his hand.

"Tony Stark, billionaire, genius, also known as IronMan."

I reluctantly extended my hand into his own before allowing it to be shaken by Stark. I had almost completely forgotten about this odd custom. He kept shooting me an expectant look all through the duration. He wanted my name in return. I narrowed my eyes. At my look, he gave a slight shrug and ushered me towards the roof access door to head inside.

"I see that you're not much of a talker. That's fine, it really is, but if you want to go anywhere, like, oh, I don't know… home for instance, you're going to have to say something." Stark rambled as we made our way inside the impossibly tall structure. His stream of words personified by the clouds of steam emanating from his mouth. Was it really all that cold? He didn't shut up until we were well into the building and down a flight of stairs.

We made our way to a room that seemed to work as a living quarter as well as an office. There was a well-dressed and tidy woman sitting on a couch, who immediately stood when she spotted me. She had light auburn hair tied back in a ponytail and was wearing a prim, white dress. She gave me a smile as she reached her hand out to mine as well. What was it with these Terrans?

"Oh Pepper, thank goodness. Pepper, Girl. Girl, Pepper." Stark introduced us while shrugging off his coat and turning his entire focus onto a small pad that was connected to a single lens visor which he fixed over his left eye, on which I could see small images and words on. He appeared to be looking for something. "Those damned Nova Corps. I can see why Peter likes to work independently from them."

Stark continued blathering on to this Pepper woman while I cautiously gave a look around. The place was very spacious, but with a stifling and severe design. Even with all the open space, I felt suffocated. Maybe it was all the white, the sunlight seemed to gleam off of every surface available. I started to wander a little in my curiosity, I wasn't used to being too strictly confined. Stark snapped his fingers at me to regain my attention.

"Are you ready to give us a name? We're not running a babysitting service for wayward space-teens." I rolled my eyes at Stark's comment.

"I'm not a teen, and I don't need to be babysat, thanks." I replied, crossing my arms.

Stark gave a sarcastic clap. "Oh! She _can_ talk! Excellent, so let's just hurry this up please? Thanks to your friends I have to prepare for a press conference to explain the UFO landing on top of our building." Stark grabbed a glass off of a nearby counter and I could smell the whiskey from where I was standing.

I snorted at his words. "They're no more my friends than they are yours. I never asked to be brought back here."

Pepper sat back down on the couch and looked back and forth from Stark to me. "So, what is your name? We can get you back to your family and then we'll all be happy."

I frowned again. I wasn't sure if I wanted to see my family. I barely remembered them and I personally said goodbye to them years ago. What if my family had moved on like I had? What if they wanted nothing to do with me? They knew me as a five-year-old optimistic young child, naive and bright-eyed. Not this surly, lethal, unpredictable beast of a young woman that I'd become. After a few more rounds of back and forth, and Pepper eying me with slight confusion, I finally relented.

"Sonia."

"There! Was that so hard, missy? I mean, a last name would've been much more helpful but-" Stark was cut off by my reaction to him clapping his hand on the back of my shoulder.

I instantly grabbed his hand and whirled around to grapple his arm into an awkward position. Stark quickly set his glass down and some sort of metallic glove appeared over his other hand, a whirring sound could be heard from it, like a weapon powering up. Or a blaster. I snarled at him and he gave a slight look of shock at my teeth before we both stood down.

It was over quickly, both of us regarding the other more carefully. Pepper had started towards us but was barely halfway before it was over. I continued growling to discourage anymore contact. Just because I was technically a Terran didn't mean that they could go on touching me like that.

"So!" Stark practically shouted, clearly recovered, "Who's hungry?"

I stared at him in amazement. How could anyone switch gears so quickly? I was still slightly baffled, and my fangs were still out as Stark caught my eye and tried to wordlessly get an answer out of me. I felt my teeth slowly retract as I considered the food option. I nodded, causing another exclamation from him.

"Excellent! Pepper! Let's get some take-out!"

I glanced over at Pepper, to find her just as stunned as I was. She seemed to recover much more quickly however, it must come with the territory of… working with him? Living with him? What _was_ her role here?

Within the hour, we had a few orders of some kind of food I'd never seen before. Stark called it 'Indian' which seemed to ring a dusty old bell in the back of my brain somewhere. I dismissed it and focused on the smell. A mixture of tangy spices and long-stewed meat filled my nose. It smelled absolutely wonderful and my mouth watered in anticipation. I felt my teeth start to shift again as I was reminded of those long weeks restricted to, yet again, another Xandarian diet.

Stark motioned me to sit at a glass table off to the side of the open room. I made my way over slowly, surely this must be a trap of some sort? My arms were crossed as I slowly sat down, eyeing him warily in the process. He pulled up short and stood stock still, considering my appearance. I felt my hackles rise up again at the feeling of being watched by another predator.

"Aren't you hot in that coat?"

_Yes_. I almost replied, but stopped myself. Why does he want my coat off? Where would it go? I wasn't about to lose one of my last few connections to the rest of the Galaxy. I fully intended on returning some point soon. The Ravager emblem on the right sleeve would provide me with invaluable passage through some of the rougher parts of the Galaxy.

"Where would I put it?" I asked him in return.

Stark shrugged. "Wherever. The coat closet, the couch, the back of your chair. I don't really care." He whirled around to head towards the small table in the living area and retrieved the cartons of food while I slipped off my coat and draped it over the back of my chair, like he suggested, to keep it close by. Stark returned with the food and went behind me to the kitchen area. I heard a couple glasses clink together and he returned with his whiskey, and a couple empties. Also, a giant plastic bottle that looked really familiar.

Stark set all this on the table just within my reach and was about to set his hand on my shoulder again, before his common sense caught him the second his hand came into contact with me and I snarled in his direction.

"Alright, I got you just some chicken tikka masala, which comes with yellow rice, since that's usually a safe bet for people who haven't had Indian food before…" Stark slid a container to me from across the table. I leaned forward and sniffed it cautiously.

Pepper was watching me across the table while unsubtly glancing over at Stark. She seemed annoyed at him about something. I was wondering if it had anything to do with not attempting to get me to my family anymore. I reached up and scratched my shoulder where Stark had touched it, resettling the coat all the while not help but feel a little relieved at the thought. I was still nervous about seeing them and had a strong desire to return to space, despite there really being nothing out there for me. At least up there, I understood more.

Stark sat down next to Pepper, took one sip of his drink and then was up again saying, "Oh! I forgot something in the lab!"

I tracked Stark's movements with my eyes as he headed towards a spiraled glass staircase. Was he always this erratic? I caught Pepper's eye, who gave me a slight shrug, before returning to plunge my fork into my food.

The food was like a gift from the gods and I had to stop myself from moaning at the eruption of flavors in my mouth. It wasn't too much time at all before I was scraping the bottom of an empty carton with my fork, trying desperately to make more food appear so I could eat it. Defeated, I leaned back, feeling the familiar pang of hunger subside to a light grumbling. Would I ever be anywhere with enough food?

Pepper opened her mouth to say something when Stark's head popped over the floor, quickly followed by the rest of his body.

"You have very interesting blood, my friend." Stark said as he settled into a chair as Pepper and I each gave him a blank stare.

_Was I bleeding?_ I quickly gave myself a once over. No. My shoulder itched again and I pushed my shirt off of it as the smell of my blood hit my nose. There was a tiny, nearly imperceptible pinprick on my shoulder. A small red dot stared up at me as I narrowed my eyes and gave Stark a low, threatening growl. Instantly, my teeth shifted and I felt my ears start moving up to poke out the top of my head, flared back in anger, the golden rings letting off a metallic rustle.

"What did you do?" I growled, my voice low and gravelly during my partial-shift.

Stark watched me in apparent fascination as my vision sharpened with my shifting eyes. Pepper's fear was only betrayed by the scent being let off, as her face was an impassive wall.

"I'm starting to piece together how you transform now," Stark commented, picking up his glass again to take another sip. "It also helps explain why your father is such a recluse, given he shares the same gene with you, of course."

Stunned, I refused to let my utter shock show. I could tell he was wanting to see and gauge my reaction as his eyes never left my face. I narrowed mine in return and lowered my chin, intensifying my growl. I knew he wanted me to ask, but I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing he rattled me. I could barely remember my father, how could this man instantly know who he was? I held my tongue further as Stark set his glass back down, still eyeing me. Pepper seemed to find her voice at this time to say:

"Tony! How could you do that!?" She seemed angry at his theft of my blood. I'll admit, I was pretty angry too, but there wasn't much I could do about it now.

Stark shrugged in response to Pepper's question.

"Nova told me that they thought she was just an animal at first, but she'd changed forms without the use of gamma rays. I wanted to know how," he replied simply, spearing some food with his fork and popping it into his mouth as though nothing was amiss.

I forced myself to calm down and make my growling subside. I regulated my breathing and closed my eyes to focus on my heart rate. As much as I didn't want to, I brought the sleeve of my coat up to my nose and pulled Kraglin's scent into me. As always, it's unusual calming effect started working almost immediately. It also brought back all of the memories of what had happened a couple weeks ago. The sting of betrayal shot through me again and I felt my throat close in a knee-jerk emotional response. Again, I grabbed ahold of my breathing and heartbeat and slowed them both. Control. Control. I could do this.

When I opened my eyes, my vision was back to human and I could feel my ears at their human place on the sides of my head. My claws and teeth were, not quite gone, but had rescinded. Stark appeared to have been studying me this entire time, while also eating. This man had strange priorities. I took one more deep breath for good measure before levelling my eyes with Stark's.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" I asked him in an even, controlled voice. I briefly wondered what color my eyes were, as that was the one thing that I didn't fully have a grasp on.

"Yeah, actually. It's a natural ability and it seems to be purely genetic. Although infection might also be an option, but I'd rather not test that theory. There seems to be a few extra pieces in your mitochondrial DNA, also, which might have some serious implications. I'd love to be able to talk to your father about it," Stark shot a peculiar look my direction as he mentioned my father. I felt my temper flare up again.

"I have yet to ever infect anyone," I commented. I didn't quite know what to say about the rest, mostly because I didn't really understand it.

Stark shrugged in response, "It might be because you've yet to really encounter any other Terrans."

Huh. He had a point there. Anyone that I'd ever scratched or bitten (and didn't kill) were non-Terrans. I tried to think back to when I was a kid and if my family ever told me anything about scratching or biting people, but I couldn't recall. We sat in silence for a few more minutes while Stark finished up his food.

"Okay," he said, dragging a napkin over his mouth before crumpling it up and throwing it in the carton he was eating out of, "Let's get a move on."

I stood up when he did and returned my coat to its rightful place on my shoulders before following Stark down the stairs into a hangar of some sorts. I saw many different vehicles that seemed familiar, but I couldn't place them. Stark wound his way around a few before selecting a bright red, shiny… car. Yes, these were cars. Bloody hell, I wasn't going to last long on this planet. Stark opened a door and sat down, bringing the car to life with a thunderous roar mere seconds later. I walked to the other side or the vehicle and fumbled at the handle until Stark rolled his eyes and leaned over to open it for me. I sat down and somehow remembered to look for safety straps before Stark peeled out of the garage.

It wasn't long before we were at the edges of the city. The buildings looked impossibly tall as we hurtled along pathways in this land-vehicle. I'd seen a few planets that had small enough cities and surface area to make land-vehicles plausible, but most places, like Xandar, still used flying ones. It didn't really matter to me, I didn't know how to work either of them. I was good with my own four paws.

When we reached our apparent destination it had the feel of a runway, but was completely abandoned. Stark pulled the car up to the side of a plane (got that one, fuck yeah!) and shut down the vehicle, before exiting. I quickly followed suit, curious and wanting to know what was going to happen next. I followed Stark up a small set of stairs into the belly of the plane. Inside it was a bunch of comfortable seats with small tables in between for holding things. Stark plopped down in a seat and I chose the one that faced him.

"So, what is this?" I dared ask. I didn't want to sound stupid, but I _had_ to know.

"You didn't think we were driving all the way to Montana, did you?" Stark asked, before pulling out his tiny pad again and fiddling around with it.

'_Montana._' That word instantly brought back memories. Just hearing it brought to my mind the scent of pine, the fresh mountain air, the sounds of the little creek that ran near our house. It was the place that used to be my home. How could I have forgotten?

"Okay, so, you were kidnapped by 'aliens' 22 years ago, who was it?" Stark asked.

I still quite fully trust him, especially after the stunt he pulled with stealing my blood. However, he seemed to actually know where my family was located, but maybe I could get a little information out of him too if he wanted mine. A trade, like Kraglin and I did.

"How do you know my dad?" I asked. The speed in which he put only a couple pieces together was rather phenomenal. I crossed my arms and stared at him until he noticed. Someone dressed in a black suit brought him yet another drink, and he purposefully took a long sip. A low, irritated growl escaped my lips as I realized he was toying with me.

"I recently worked on a project with him," Stark replied, setting the glass down, "He helped design the building you were just in, and his crew helped put it up. I also met Darian, his successor," Stark paused, waiting to see my reaction, which was confusion. Why the hell was Daré there? Where was Wes? _He_ was the successor. What the fuck happened while I was away?

"So anyways, they mentioned you a few times, and I remember reading a few articles about your father throughout the years after you'd been kidnapped. Every article about him mentioned you. Henrik insisted that you were kidnapped by aliens, I guess he saw the ship or something, and until you said your name just now, I always kind of dismissed it."

I stared in amazement. That was _a lot_ of information that he just threw at me. Maybe I was right to place a little trust in him. I vaguely noticed that he did a rather neat job of bringing his answer back to where he wanted me to pick up. I still didn't quite want to tell much of my past.

"You're taking me to my actual house, right?" I asked.

Stark gave a noise of agreement.

"Wait until then, I don't want to talk about my past more than once."

The plane's take-off was quite a bit more rocky than most of the spacecrafts that I'd been in, albeit, quieter. I turned my head to watch out the window as the city quickly disappeared from sight. I briefly wondered if the view was majorly different out of the other multitude of windows I spotted and jumped up to check.

Once I stood, I realized just how nervous I was at seeing my family again. What would they think of me? Would they be relieved? Or just hateful at what I'd become? How would they feel about what I'd done? My mind couldn't stop racing with questions. I'd never cared before about people judging me, but part of me wondered if it would be better for my family to just remember me as I was.

"Hey! Quit pacing around, you lunatic. You're making it very difficult to concentrate over here!" Stark scolded from his chair. I restricted my pacing to the back of the aircraft, while stepping as silently as I could. It seemed to do the trick, as Stark didn't say anything else until we'd landed.

I was even more jittery as I exited the plane. This couldn't be real. It had to be a dream. There was no way that I was finally going to see my family after over two decades by myself in the Galaxy. Stark and I walked into the nearest building. I noticed that he wrapped his coat a little tighter around himself. I guess it was a bit more cold here, but I was too amped up to care. The two of us passed right through the building and out the other side, in a place that shared a lot of characteristics with a tunnel. There were a couple yellow cars parked outside and Stark motioned me over to one of them and we got inside the back half.

"We need to get to Bickford road." Stark told the man sitting up front.

The driver looked back at Stark through a small mirror above him and shot him a questioning look. "The Iversen place? They don't like visitors too much, mister."

"It's a business transaction." Stark replied.

The driver only shrugged at this and sped off. I rolled my eyes at Stark's description of my homecoming and watched out the window again as we drove right through the heart of the city. I racked my brain to try and remember the name of it. Something to do with water? Or… Great Falls! Right, it was fairly close to my family's land. After leaving the city, my dejá vú increased tenfold as the trees rushed past. We turned down a very familiar road and started traveling down what I remembered to be my family's driveway. As we neared the complex, there were a few neatly manicured bushes and we passed over a small pond. The car stopped in front of the main house, the smaller buildings couldn't be seen from here, but I remembered that they existed, and Stark paid the driver, who drove off almost immediately.

My entire body felt like there was an electric current running through it as Stark and I mounted the few steps that led up to the main door. I looked all around and the memories came flooding back. I remembered climbing in _that_ tree and scraping my knee in the gravelled driveway trying to play on Dex's skateboard. Stark rang the doorbell and I heard it echo around the inside of the house. I nearly jumped out of my skin as I heard footsteps coming down the stairs. The door opened and we stood face to face with a cat I didn't know. He didn't look like the rest of us, with green eyes, olive skin and dark hair, but instead was more fair. He had tanned skin, light eyes, whose color I couldn't quite pinpoint and brown hair that was clipped close to his head. One of his ears had a small nick in it. The two of us drew in each others' scents and I could tell that he was apart of my clan, but not in my blood line. His eyes widened as he comprehended mine.

"P-Princess Sonia?"

**Hope you're happy with that. Because I honestly wasn't sure if I'd finish it time to post it today haha**

**I know it's super long, I'm sure you don't actually mind it (probably prefer it actually) but I cannot promise if the rest will be this length. Most likely.**

**~F2tM**


	4. A Fistful of Iversens - Sonia

**I know, I know. I'm a day late, but I'm not a dollar short. Since part of the reason for my tardiness is my work schedule exploding out of control. 4 people on vacation = all the work for me.  
So anyways, I'm not pleased with this chapter. Like, at all. But I'm not exactly sure on how else to have it go. I know where it's going next, a plus side to working so much is that I essentially get 8 hours a day to daydream about Sonia and Kraglin and their multitude of adventure and how they'd react to certain situations etc. Fun stuff. This is seriously my life right now, it's weird.**

**...**

**I forgot that I wasn't 26 years old the other day X_X;**

"And you were going to inform me of this when, exactly?"

I didn't even dignify Stark with a response as I stared down this cat guarding the door who was currently trying his best to keep his composure. I hadn't been referred to as a 'princess' in so long I couldn't even think of myself in those terms. I mean, yeah, technically I am among the Were community, but it's not like that title did me any good after I was taken off of Terra. No one cared up there.

The guy at the door kept staring at me, unsure of how to proceed. From somewhere in the house, I heard the sound of someone running in our direction. Spurred into motion, our doorguard quickly moved to the side, holding out his hand to gesture us inside.

"I'm sorry, please, both of you, come in. Good to see you again, Mr. Stark," he said, clearly recovered from his shock.

Stark nodded in reply as we walked through the doorway. A jolt ran through me as I took in all the changes that befallen my former home in the past 21 years. The stairs had been recarpeted in a plusher beige, the small hallway table whose lamp I almost shattered on numerous occasions was gone and a new chandelier stared down at me from the vaulted ceiling. Even with all these changes, the scent of this place was more or less the same. It was slightly different with all the new additions in the house what with exhibit A currently closing the door behind us and the telltale signs of a possible exhibit B coming down the stairs.

The sound stopped and I looked out of the corner of my eye to see a young girl standing midway down the steps staring at Stark and I. She had very wavy black hair that was tied back to leave two pieces hanging in the front. She was wearing a denim skirt with a matching jacket and a light blue top. I could see a gold necklace and hoop earrings from where I stood. I could tell that she wasn't happy about something. Well, too fucking bad, this was _my_ house, too.

"Who are you?" She asked in an accusing tone. "Ethan?" She asked, darting her eyes over to our escort.

Ethan looked up at her and gestured to us, "This is Tony Stark, escorting one: Sonia Iversen."

The girl gaped at me. Stark threw up his hands in frustration and let out an impatient noise. I rolled my eyes at him, I guess he wasn't used to being ignored.

"_You're_ Sonia?" The girl asked disgustedly. I narrowed my eyes at her. She was judging me, and that would stop now.

"Yes. Who are _you_?" I asked in return, keeping my voice even and controlled. I was a Royal, and I had the most authority in present company.

"I'm Annabelle, the _princess_ here," she replied. I refused to let my emotion show as she claimed to have my mother's name. I would be having words with whichever one of my brothers was her father about it later, that's for damn sure. Also, how on earth did she think she was a princess? I flared my nostrils, picking up more of her scent. Sure enough, she had the scent of a Royal; more wild and primal than the specimen standing to my left.

"Is there a table, or somewhere to continue this conversation? Hallway seems too open, for my taste," Stark quipped, regaining control of the situation.

Ethan nodded, "Uh yeah, sorry about that Mr. Stark, we can head into the dining room. I've got to get Henrik anyways."

We followed Ethan into the dining room where the table was yet another thing that was unfamiliar to me. Annabelle had come along with us, and I really hoped that her fucking attitude would stay in check. She seemed threatened by my presence; as she probably should be, I'd essentially just usurped her.

As soon as Stark and I were settled at the table, Ethan ran off to get my father and Annabelle took the chair directly across from me and tried to subdue me with a glare. I ignored her and took a look around to see what else had changed. So far it seemed that the only the artwork hanging on the walls had remained the same. The house felt strange and empty to me, it always seemed to be bursting with life when I was younger. Were Ethan, Annabelle and my dad the only ones here right now? I noticed that I was still being glared at so I focused my attention to her and studied her. Based on what Stark had said about the new heir (for some fucking reason,) I made an educated guess about whose kid I was looking at.

"Where's Daré?" I asked coolly.

Annabelle answered with a sharp inhale, "No one calls him that anymore."

I shrugged. I had no intention of changing, that's what he's always been to me, "So?"

She broke eye contact and looked down the hallway, "Him, my brother and Marcus are out doing some surveying right now for Grandpa." She took a small device out of her pocket and started fiddling around with it. I heard some noises that sounded like tapping coming from it and after a few moments the screen went dark and she returned it. What was _that_? Actually, I'd seen Stark using something similar, it must be some kind of communications device. Was it like a PerCom?

Stark had also been looking around, taking in the polished wood flooring, the granite countertops in the kitchen and the sliding glass door that led to the patio and beyond that, a forest. He gave an approving nod before turning his attention to my copycat.

"So who are you, exactly?"

Annabelle whipped her head in his direction and glared at him hard. She even had green eyes like me, creepy.

"I am the next heir in line! Since Sonia took off, they needed another Royal female in order to maintain the line! So, here I am. A poor imitation, according to everyone else," she slumped down in her chair. How old was this kid? Still had a lot of that angst going on.

"Probably cos you're not me," I offered.

"You got that right," she eyed me, "Thanks to you, I'm not allowed to do _anything_."

The fuck did _I_ do?

From upstairs, I heard a slight shout of surprise and I craned my head towards the direction. Annabelle looked at me strangely and the sounds of the rapid footsteps could be heard echoing above us as my father tore his way through the house. Seconds later, he appeared at the end of the hallway, taking in the sight of me in a hushed wonder.

"You look just like your mother."

I stiffened. I wasn't expecting that, but I didn't budge until he got closer. I forgot what an imposing figure my father was. He was only of average height, but he had a thick build that looked unusual on a man of his age. His hair had more gray than black in it and his beard was neatly trimmed. The suit he was wearing fit nicely with his dark stature. He leaned forward and was about to lay both arms over me when my instinct took over and I leaped back from the table, knocking over the chair and catching myself midair to land on all fours.

I was panting slightly from the adrenaline and slowly stood up. I carefully met my father's eyes and saw a vast amount of pain in them.

"I… apologize," I said, "I don't do well with physical contact."

"I'll say, she about dislocated my shoulder earlier today," Stark commented, watching us in fascination.

My dad furrowed his brow, "I don't understand. Cats take comfort in contact, especially with others of our species."

I gave a slight frown. "So do Xandarians, but I've had too many bad experiences to allow anyone that close."

Stark looked doubly interested in what I just said, and Annabelle just gave a sneer.

"What are 'Xandarians'? Some kind of _alien_?" She asked tauntingly, putting a strange inflection on the word 'alien' to make it sound more ridiculous. I rolled my eyes at her.

"So I was right, you were abducted?" My father's voice cracked on the last word and tears sprang to his eyes. I was taken aback. Clan Leaders don't show anything but the utmost control over all of their emotions. I briefly wondered what his mental state had become in my 20 year absence.

Annabelle gave an eyeroll to match my own at my father's words.

"Don't encourage him, Sonia."

"Actually," Stark interjected, "Nova is also really interested in the circumstances of how you left Earth."

I shrugged as Annabelle let out a snort. My father gave her a sharp look.

"Annabelle, that's enough. Sonia deserves your respect."

The tone my father used was his serious one and I could tell that he wanted her to stop messing around and let me tell my story, which I was not too keen on doing. I opened my mouth to speak and stopped when I heard the front door open. I instantly turned my head in the direction of the sound before anyone else had realized that we had company.

"Hey-o!" A voice called from the front door, echoing around the hallway.

"What is your _problem_, Young Lady!?" A second voice roared. I recognized that one.

Within moments, Daré came power-walking into the dining room, only to stop short and stare at me. This was getting old. I was debating just shifting and running into the woods to avoid more stares. I sighed, frustrated.

"Sonia? Is that you?" he asked quietly.

I nodded. Taking in my brother's new appearance. He was taller than our father and had neatly trimmed hair as black as the rest of ours. He was wearing a dark grey peacoat with black slacks and shiny black had a little bit of stubble, giving him a tired look. The lines on Daré's face told of the strain of having to be the one to carry on the line and raise such a brat like Annabelle. Oh wait, she has a brother too, doesn't she? I shifted my gaze to look past my brother and saw another kid standing in the hallway. His hair hung over his forehead and he had on a thick blue fleece and jeans.

"I… We all thought you were dead," Daré said bluntly.

I gave another slight shrug as I moved to sit back down in my previously occupied chair. Daré held out his arms, "Hey, give me a hug, kiddo." He gave a small smile, unsure of how to treat me.

"That's not really recommended," Stark chimed in. Daré turned his attention to him.

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Stark. Welcome to our home," he inclined his head in his direction. When did Daré become so… _formal_? "Thank you for bringing my sister back to us."

"Well, it got her out of _my_ hair after Nova decided to dump her into my lap," Stark scratched the back of his head, looking a little off-guard. "They just want a little bit more information about the case, presumably to catch the guy who took her off Earth to begin with and then I'll be on my way."

"I don't know."

Everyone looked at me. They weren't expecting that answer. Stark frowned at me. "Nothing? Not a name? Description?"

I intensified my look. "I was five."

The men in the room all swapped confused looks at my harsh tone but fuck them. I wasn't going to tell Stark. The bastard that took me was going to die by my own hands, not rot in some prison cell. I'd decided this long ago and now I was a free cat. Well, as free as I could be while stuck on Terra with no ship. Come to think of it, Stark was my ticket off this rock. He cradled his face in his hands before standing up with a deep sigh.

"Well, Nova won't be happy. Whatever, I guess. I gave it a shot, nothing I can do if you don't remember," he started to make his way towards the door when I snatched his sleeve to keep him pinned to the table. "Hey! Watch it! This coat costs more than your life!" Stark snarled at me. Impressive, but I doubt it.

"My last transaction had me priced at fifty thousand Units," I calmly stated. The look of surprise in his face was the true priceless thing in this room. My father gave a sharp inhale at the mention of me being for sale.

"Good god! Well, regardless, let me go."

"You're not leaving me here." I purposely avoided eye contact with Daré and my father, they could never understand how I feel. Stark frowned at me.

"They're your family. Where else would you go?"

"I have unfinished business." I said simply, offering no further explanation.

"Argh! I have to go! The next flight out of here leaves soon and I fully intend to be on it. Call me in a week if you still feel the same," Stark reached into his inside coat pocket and pulled out a little white card which he then handed to me. "Alright? Good," turning to my father he said, "Nice to see you again Henrik, building's holding up this time."

My father inclined his head in return, his earlier outburst of emotion dissipated. He took on a serious note again as he asked, "One moment, how much do you know?"

Stark paused and locked eyes with my father. After a few seconds, he said, "More than I wanted to. I took a blood sample from her and it did nothing more than confirm my suspicions after what I'd already seen."

After another sharp inhale, my father looked over at me, trying to appear angry. "You shifted?"

Stark said, "I startled her," at the same time that I said, "Not all the way!" Everyone stared at me in varying degrees of shock (and annoyance, in Annabelle's case.)

"'All the way'?" My father repeated slowly, as if digesting the words. What was the confusion here?

"You can partial-shift?" Daré's son asked in disbelief. I nodded at him.

"Yeah, so?" I was so lost.

"So, it's _impossible_, you liar." Annabelle accused.

I'd just about had it with her. I turned in her direction and hissed, shifting my teeth and ears. She went white and just about leapt back from the table as I'd done earlier. I kept growling after her as she ducked around towards Daré. Huh, not so brave when actually faced with consequences, are we? Typical, talk is always cheap.

"Whoa," Daré's son whispered. Daré himself recovered first.

"How long?"

"How long what?" I asked, still shifted. I could hear someone shuffling around upstairs and a strange tapping sound. It must have been the other person that came with Daré. Marcus? Why did that name sound familiar? Also where was that Ethan guy? Was he up there too?

"Have you been able to partially shift?" My father filled in, stepping closer to get a better look, which I allowed.

I shrugged, yet again, "A few years after I left Terra?" I guess, I couldn't quite remember. "I don't know, as the years went on I spent less time as a human so I'm not sure exactly the partial shifting started, I didn't know it was a big deal until now."

Daré and my father exchanged a look and the elder turned back towards Stark, holding his hand out. Stark took it and they both let go with a nod. Our secret was safe.

And with that, Stark turned and left. It was so abrupt. Still as erratic as before, even when not in his home. What an enigma.

I looked down at the card he'd handed me. There were a bunch of words on it that I couldn't even begin to puzzle out reading as well as some clusters of numbers. What did this mean? How was this a way to get in contact with him. It was just a little slip of paper. I growled at it and shoved it in my pocket.

**So again, I think it's pretty garbagio, but what do y'all think? I'd be curious to get your input on it.  
Thanks for being patient and not pelting me with e-mails about being late. But please pelt me with reviews. I like those.  
~F2tM**


	5. Overwhelmed - Sonia

**Howdy folks! Okay, so this week I got a question about my upload rate for this story. Galactic Hunter was updated every Tuesday as I was always 15 or so chapters ahead. For Terraside, however, I have fully caught up with myself so the updates might not be as regular as before. I will try my hardest to get this updated every Tuesday, but please don't kill me if it's not updated until Wednesday or Thursday. These chapters are longer and I'm back to working 40 hours a week, on top of school. Do know, that the majority of my time outside of work is being dedicated to this, though. I'm trying to ensure quality and I have a lot of information to pack into this story. Lots of character development as well, so please bear with me!**

"We've got to test her, and then tell the council," Daré was saying as I turned my attention back towards them.

"Not yet," my father said, shaking his head. "Let us have a few days first, she's been gone for over two decades. Where are Marcus and Ethan?"

"Upstairs, tapping something," I answered as I pointed at the ceiling above me where the sound could be heard. Still. Seriously, what the fuck were they doing up there?

"They're e-mailing the family, I think," Daré supplemented. What's 'e-mailing' mean, I wonder?

My father turned and went upstairs with a sigh as Daré took the seat that Annabelle had abandoned for one further away from me. Daré's son (whose name I still didn't know) sat next to him. After a few seconds he said, "What happened out there?"

"Buncha stuff," I tried to say nonchalantly, "It's not important. Where's Wes? And Gun?" _Those_ were important. I had things to get to the bottom of.

Daré looked slightly peeved by my abrupt subject change, but I wasn't ready to share, yet. As far as I was concerned, the state of affairs that I had returned to were much more important than my measly 21 years in the Galaxy. This family had practically fallen apart in my absence.

"Wes eloped with a human a few years after you were kidnapped, and Gunnar-"

"Gunnar's gay." Annabelle said, doing something on that little tiny pad again.

I tried not to look confused. I'm sure they were getting just as tired of explaining things to me as I was of not understanding them. Annabelle looked up from her mini-pad and gave me an annoyed look.

"He likes dudes."

Lightbulb. "Ah." I relaxed a bit, I thought it meant something _serious_. "And?"

Daré shot Annabelle a concerned look before replying, "So, no heirs."

I opened my mouth to say something but quickly closed it. I knew that there was some technology out in some of the higher civilized regions of the Galaxy where it was entirely possible for same-sex couples and even polygamous relations to bear children. Not to mention all of the sexless species out there. Daré's son gave me a strange look that made me think I should have just gone on.

"You don't care?" Annabelle shot at me.

"About what?" I asked. Yeah, I mean, it sucked that Gun couldn't have kids if he wanted them.

"That he's gay?" She pressed. Was I _supposed_ to have a problem with that?

I shook my head. "I've seen way stranger relationships to take issues with Gun's sexuality. You ever meet a _Flora colossus_? They don't even reproduce sexually."

I couldn't tell if Annabelle was shocked or confused by this news. Either way, she didn't look entirely convinced that I was telling the truth. Did she think I was just insane? Yeah, actually, she probably did. Whatever, I knew that I was telling the truth.

"So anyways," I continued, turning my attention back to Daré, "you found a mate and made this annoying loud mouth and her quiet brother?" I nodded to each one in turn.

"His name's Matthew by the way, and it was an arranged marriage." Daré said, not making eye contact with either of his kids.

I nodded. "So she's…."

"A purebred. But not a Royal," Daré crossed his arms and leaned back in the chair, relaxing a bit. "Her parents and dad worked out a deal, she was supposed to marry Wes, but that didn't work out and Gun was an obvious flop. So, she got stuck with me."

Annabelle's tiny pad made a chiming noise and she jumped up and went to the front door. I turned around in my chair to look down the hallway as the door opened and a woman walked in carrying two brown paper bags. She had medium length straight dark brown hair and was wearing a neat black dress. She shouldered the door closed after her as another guy came downstairs.

I assumed this was Marcus, by process of elimination. He had short black hair that was super curly and a goatee. Dangling from his left ear was a hoop earring. I subconsciously reached up to feel my line of nearly identical golden loops. His green eyes practically shone as he shot me a wicked grin.

"Hey, cuz. How've ya been?" He leaned back against the wall, his ironed jeans and black polo shirt standing out against the white walls. "Decide to join us back here on Earth?"

I felt a small flare of anger as I sensed him mocking me, but quickly pushed it back down as he kept up the grin. I gave a small smile in return.

"It seems as though I missed out on a lot in my absence." I couldn't think of anything more clever to say than that. Witty remarks were just not a tool that I possessed. However, what he called me, 'cuz', brought back memories. I forgot I even _had_ a cousin.

The woman (I'm assuming Daré's wife?) came through the hallway and went turned into the kitchen where she deposited her bags on the island's granite countertop. She pushed back her hair behind her ears and looked me up and down. She pursed her lips.

"You must be Sonia. I'm Desiré, Darian's wife." She introduced herself. I briefly wondered which clan she was from, but then realized that I didn't really care. I shrugged at her, unsure of what to say.

"You have given us a lot to deal with here," she sighed. "We're going to have to get into contact with the Fuentes, test your abilities, do some shuffling around with the current poilicie-"

"Dessie, c'mon, let her relax a little bit first, eh?" Marcus said, seeming annoyed. "There'll be time for all of that later, kiddo's still got drops of Jupiter in her hair for Crissakes."

Desiré narrowed her eyes at Marcus, "You know as well as I do that the clan needs to be sorted out _first_. The Fuentes will be furious if they find out that we delayed in telling them."

I raised an eyebrow at the first person to catch my sight, which was Matthew. He shot me a slightly scared look in return. What did he know? Annabelle had also started paying attention again at the mention of this name. Was this another clan? Or an order of some kind?

"Dad already ordered us to wait to tell anyone," Daré interjected.

"Well, too late," Marcus cut in, frowning, "Ethan and I sent out e-mails to Wes, Gun, Dex and Jackson."

"Pah," Daré waved his hand, "They don't count. I doubt any of them will show up anyways."

"Why not?" I asked. My brothers were the only people I was actually looking forward to seeing. Jackson and I were best buddies when I was here last, he was the one that I had missed the most while in space. "Also, what the fuck is an 'e-mail'?" They kept mentioning those, I wanted to know!

Desiré let out a slight hiss of annoyance at me, not quite up to the standard of mine, but as good as she could get whilst in her human form. "Don't swear."

I felt my hackles rise slightly at being commanded by a lower ranking female, but I made no notion of obeying her. I would speak however I damn well pleased, especially while in my own fucking house.

"It's short for 'electronic mail', Sonia," Marcus answered, also ignoring Desiré. "It's a way to send messages to everyone. But, Wes is all the way in LA, Dex and Monica are currently in northern Alaska doing some fieldwork, Gun's moody as all hell, so who knows if he'll even _reply_ and Jackson's been out of touch for years."

Whew, that was a lot of information. I'd have to get a hold of a map soon and have them show me the places that Marcus just mentioned, as they found vaguely familiar to me, but I couldn't remember where they were. The news of Jackson not even being in touch sent a pang through my chest. I wanted my bestbud, especially now, while everything was so confusing. I opened my mouth to ask who Monica was when Matthew answered.

"Monica is Dex's girlfriend. She's a wolf." Ooh, I hoped that I got to meet her, I've never met a wolf before.

"Mom, _Sonia's_ got her ears pierced, why can't I?" Annabelle whined from the corner where she was sitting, playing on that dumb little device again. Desiré let out an audible sigh before sharply answering;

"Because Sonia isn't _13_."

"Also, these weren't done to me by choice." I commented dryly. All heads turned to me at this. I shrugged, "Some of my owners branded me."

Another sharp inhale from Desiré as the kids just looked shocked. Marcus and Daré looked angry. I swept my hair back from both my ears, revealing the multitude of hoops running down the length of each ear. Six on my left, seven on my right.

"You had that many owners?" Matthew asked quietly.

I shook my head. "More than that. These were just the ones that branded me. Minus one. Turns out if I just slip the brand out it heals as a giant welt. It's easier to just stick a hoop in there and keep the hole open." I explained. Annabelle looked utterly mortified at this.

Daré looked down at his hands, which were clasped together on top of the table. "Is this what you meant when you told Stark about your last sale?"

"Yeah," I slightly frowned, "the last guy who owned me paid fifty thousand Units. It was the most I've ever been sold for, which is crazy to me, since I've been sold for way more profitable roles than this."

Matthew asked, "How much is a Unit?" At the same time that Daré asked, "Profitable how?"

I shrugged at Matthew, "I have no idea. I've never owned any money." I ignored Daré, I didn't want to talk about that right now. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him grow annoyed in my lack of response, since he knew that I heard him perfectly well. He exchanged a strange look with Marcus. It wasn't that hard to put the pieces together, I would assume.

"Well, how much are things in space?" Matthew asked slowly, as if unsure of what he was saying. I saw Annabelle roll her eyes, as per normal. "Like, shirts or something?"

Ah, he was looking for a point of comparison. I paused, thinking. I'd never bought anything, personally, so I had to really screw up my brain to try and remember how much things cost. "It's been years since I was in an actual store, I spent most of my time in the muckier places of the Galaxy, like The Hub, but I think the last time I was on Xandar…. maybe…. 8 Units a shirt?" I asked, uncertain of myself.

Matthew pulled out a tiny pad that looked almost identical to the one that Annabelle was on so often and started poking away at it.

"Okay, what are those little things? I get to ask some questions too, right?" I asked dryly.

"It's a phone, a way to communicate with other _Earthlings_," Annabelle retorted at me. What was an 'Earthling'? I didn't even bother asking.

"Wow," Matthew said in a hushed voice. I shot him a look to report his findings, I was curious for curious sake, it's not like I would understand the figures he was about to spew out. "Depending on how much those shirts are worth, like, ours vary greatly here, you're worth anywhere from $125,000 to $156,000."

The room took on a slightly different tone after that. I shrugged, having no idea the significance of this. Desiré was nodding to herself.

"This is good, really good. We can use this," she was saying.

I cocked an eyebrow at her. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Sonia…" Daré warned as Desiré pursed her lips again at my language. Marcus snickered from his vantage point against the wall. This was actually very entertaining. If she was always this prude, I could 100% understand why Annabelle was such a little shit.

"It's possible that the Fuentes will be more accepting of you if they are told how much you're valued at. Since with the state you're in now, no one would want you in their family!" She shot back at me.

Ouch. I felt my temper flare up again. What was she insinuating? I felt my teeth shift slightly but stopped them from going all the way, same with my claws. "What is that supposed to mean?" I asked, struggling to keep my voice calm.

"Well, as it stands now, we could pass you off as 'mentally ill' at best," she replied flippantly, not noticing my teeth. "What with your crazy delusions of living in space for the last 20 years!"

I sighed, "Well, it's all true. I was kidnapped off of Terra when I was five years old and then sold off to a bunch of slavers. I have very little patience for people as I've lived more of my life as a panther than as a human, so if you would like to keep pushing my buttons, go right on ahead."

Desiré narrowed her eyes at me, "Are you _threatening_ me?"

I scratched the back of my head, "My last owner was a pirate, what do you want from me?"

"Awesome!" Marcus exclaimed, his eyes shining. If he knew about the general state of the bathrooms on the Eclector, he might change his mind as to how 'awesome' it was.

Desiré let out an aggravated sigh, fully vocalizing how difficult I was being right now. I sat back down, giving zero fucks about what she thought about me.

"I _want_ you to do right by your family, accept your duty and marry the youngest Fuente son!"

"What?" Was all that I could manage to spit out. It was preposterous. I just fucking got back to Terra! I wasn't about to shack up with some strange cat I didn't even know! Before she could respond, I kept going by saying, "Yeah, that's not happening."

"You mean she gets to instantly be the princess again!?" Annabelle asked, sounding slightly outraged.

"I don't want to be a princess again, you can keep that title," I told her. I didn't know the first thing about ruling people.

"It's her birthright, she's the main Iversen heiress!" Desiré snapped, "She'll marry the youngest Fuente, and together they'll continue this clan's line!"

I outright laughed at that one. Everyone looked at me. I didn't mean anything mean by this one, honestly, it was just too damn funny. "Yeah, good luck with that one." I chortled out. I suddenly had a flashback of Kraglin having a similar outburst when I'd told him I was sold as a sex slave a few times. Consider that point made.

"_And_ she's taking Fransisco away from me!?" Annabelle practically screeched.

"Keep him, I'm not marrying some goon I don't even know." I said, feeling slightly sobered after that unwelcome memory.

"Yes, you are," Desiré insisted. "I will delay informing them of your return until tomorrow, but they _will_ arrive to make sure you're up to snuff, and you better be. Our family's line and standing are at stake!"

I shot up from my chair and pounded the table with both my hands, using every technique that I could think of to keep my claws from shifting. "That is something that will never happen. I will never marry this person, who I've never even heard of _by the way, _nor will I be giving him any cubs. End of discussion. I'm going outside."

And with that, I strode away from the table and out the sliding glass door. I needed fresh air and I was not going to be a prisoner here. Well, in this house, at least. I was still trapped on this fucking rock.

**Chapter five done! God, I feel like we're making no progress, bear with me! (again!) There's light at the end of the tunnel. Lots of names and people getting thrown about willy nilly, I know, but we're almost slogged through. I think just about everyone has been at least mention. Give or take a few people.  
~F2tM**


	6. Run - Sonia

**Another chapter, successfully completed on time! Crossing my fingers that I can do the same next week. Maybe if they'd stop working me 6 days a week, yeah... that'd be great...**

As soon as I was outside, the sheer relief of being by myself in nature threatened to bring tears to my eyes. It was all so overwhelming. My family was in chaos. Half of my brothers didn't talk to the others, my father seemed to have really lost his grip on everything, and now some bitch I didn't even know was trying to marry me off to some creep. I assume. I wouldn't know since _I've never met the guy._

I could hear Marcus and Daré arguing at the table. Marcus was trying to stand up for me while Daré was defending his wife's very rude interference with my life. I couldn't take their shouting and fighting anymore. And apparently, I wasn't the only one.

I heard the sliding glass door open and close and my nose told me that I was being accompanied by Matthew. I kept looking out towards the treeline while he came to stand next to me.

"So… I think 75% of the people in that room are angry at you right now."

I nodded. "That sounds about right." I let out a sigh and crouched down, supporting my weight on the balls of my feet in case I needed to jump up or move. Matthew sat next to me.

"Are you angry at us?" He asked in a hushed voice.

I glanced over at him. He was picking out blades of grass and braiding them into a cord. I thought for a second.

"No. You guys just don't know how to react. _I_ don't know how to react either. Our whole dynamic is off. Things were so much easier when I was a kid. This is one of the reasons why I didn't ever want to come back here. I've changed too much," I said in an equally hushed voice, fiddling with the end of my braid.

"It's been like this for awhile. Dad and Jackson had a huge falling out shortly after Annabelle was born. Jackson and Gunner never got along, apparently. Not since you le- were kidnapped."

"I hope one of them shows up. I want answers," I growled. They owed me that much. I wonder if there was a way for _me_ to get in touch with any of them?

"By the way, the fact that _we_ still do arranged marriages is kinda messed up. Although, Annabelle was pretty excited; she's been e-mailing Francisco for years, so I wonder how he'll react to this news…" Matthew commented, tying the corded grass into a small hoop. "I don't think you should have to do it if you don't want to; especially since there's a lot here on Earth that you've missed out on."

I let out a small snigger and shot a crooked smile at him.

"You're a lot a cooler than your sister." I said.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Matthew give a slight frown.

"It's not her fault she's a bitch," he said, "She gets bullied at school."

I turned my head towards him, absorbing what he just said. How was that possible? She was such a bitch, shouldn't _she_ be doing all the bullying?

When I didn't respond, Matthew kept on talking, "People harass her about how's she's just a clone of you, but terrible. About how she was only born in a sad attempt for our family to keep ahold of the Clan."

"Good gods, aren't kids more concerned with like.. playing outside or some shit?" I asked. Seriously, what the everloving fuck? When the hell did kids get so mean?

Matthew shrugged at me. Ugh, this conversation was getting too heavy for my taste. "Go get her," I told him. He replied with a quizzical look, but proceeded to stand up and go back into the house, dusting off his pants.

I stayed crouched down, pulling up random blades of grass and shredding them. Gods, this was such a mess. I mean, I was fairly used to people hating me, but 9 times out of 10, I had given them good reason for doing so. My only crime here was being kidnapped and sold into slavery. I let out a haggard sigh, this day seemed to go on forever. At the sound of the house ejecting another person, I stood up and did a half-turn to let Annabelle into my sight.

She was scowling at me something fierce. The tension between us was ridiculous. I was still grasping at something to say when she spoke first.

"You summoned me, O Most Regal Princess?" She said snottily. I rolled my eyes at her.

"I was hoping for a civilized discussion, but I guess that was asking too much from a spoiled little brat like you," I knew I was goading her, but she was pushing all of my buttons right now, might as well swat a few of hers in return.

I was apparently successful, as her cheeks flushed a little in embarrassment and she huffed, saying, "Right, 'spoiled'. _You_ were the poster child of perfection!"

"Just a little FYI for you," I motioned at myself, "These clothes are the first things I've owned since I left this dumb planet, so trust me, you're living the dream."

"Whatever, I'm honestly surprised that they let me outside without supervision. They're afraid I'll disappear like you did! I can't go anywhere or do anything. It's seriously the worst!"

I raised an eyebrow at her. Her expression changed from frustrated to pure mortification as she remembered what I've been through. At least the surface part. Annabelle stammered a few times before I held up a hand to shut her up. I needed some stress relief.

"Come shift with me," I offered.

She regarded me carefully. Seemingly looking for some catch. Did she think she just offended me?

"I- I can't."

My ears perked up at that one. "You can't shift?"

"I can shift! I just… I can't go off on my own." She suddenly looked much younger than her 13 years as she diverted her attention down to her shoes.

"If Daré gets mad, he can yell at me, c'mon. I need to shift before I go absolutely mental," I motioned for her to follow as I turned and started walking towards the treeline.

It seems that curiosity got the better of her as I could hear her jogging to catch up with me before long. I was scoping out a safe place to keep our clothes.

"Have you ever heard of this fabled lake?" I asked her, subtley angling us north. My brothers would always go there to hang out while they shifted, but father would never let me go, afraid that I would get lost. Annabelle shook her head in response. She'd gotten uncharacteristically quiet. I noted that her scent was tinged with fear. Why was she so nervous in the woods? A few paces ahead of us, I could see something strange. A bright splash of yellow that stood out like a sore thumb. There seemed to be an empty duffel bag shoved into a treehole. I approached it curiously. It was rather dirty and contained the scent of many different cats. Well, it'd work for storing clothes.

I zipped it open and stuffed my jacket in. I glanced at Annabelle, who was just standing nearby.

"You're serious?" She asked, the most timid I've ever seen her. I nodded and took off my shirt.

I know that she must have seen my scar, Kraglin said it was huge, but she didn't say anything. I could hear a small noise of sympathy but instead she started to hand me her clothes, which were quickly stuffed into the bag beside mine. Getting my boots in were a different story, entirely. I ended up stashing them in the tree where I found the bag and Annabelle's joined them.

Slinging the bag over my shoulder, I crouched down on all fours and started a nice, slow shift. The realignment of the bones, muscles and sinews was painful in any regard, but after weeks of not shifting, it felt like I was fully unlocking my true self. Annabelle started her shift shortly after mine, but after I was done I sat there licking my paw and dragging it over my ear, waiting for her.

Once she was done, she gave herself a full shake and stood stock still, unsure of what to do. I twitched my ear and took off into the woods. I could hear her struggling to keep up with me so I slowed my pace again, reminding myself that she was still pretty young. And Terran-raised. I chortled to myself as I realized that being kidnapped was probably better for developing my abilities. Like the partial-shift. I wonder how long in between shifts everyone else has to wait? I never really got too much space to fully run around and test my speed while I was younger, so I'm not sure if Annabelle is up to par with my younger self.

I shook my head, I needed to stop analyzing things and just enjoy being in nature again. This is the first time since Nova caught us that I truly felt free again. I took a deep breath and let the forest's scents wash over me. The dirt, the trees, it made me feel _alive_. It was almost better than running around on Dervani, since I knew that this property was safer. There was no threat of being ambushed by Badoon here. Bunching my muscles, I hurled myself up a tree. Jumping from one branch to another, I saw Annabelle watching me in wonder. It wasn't before long that I ran out of branches that would bear my weight, so I landed next to Annabelle and nudged her in the shoulder before dashing off.

If I could have, I'd have been grinning from ear to ear. I hadn't run with another cat in 21 years, and it turns out that I was way overdue. I loved having someone to run with that could keep up with me (for the most part.) In no time, we reached the lake. I'm not sure if it just wasn't that far from the house, or if we were just running that fast. As I neared the water's edge to drink, Annabelle slowly slinked up next to me, her sides heaving. We must have really been booking it. I twitched my whiskers in amusement as she shot me a glare.

We spent the next twenty minutes or so soaking up the rays of the dying sunlight on the river's edge and Annabelle caught us a few fish. It was skill that I'd never learned, I was great at land-stalking, not so much with water. Once the sun fully disappeared behind the trees, casting the lake in a faded orange color, I motioned with my head for us to start heading back.

The return trip took more time as my initial enthusiasm was spent, so I let Annabelle set the pace. I felt a little bad for pushing her so hard on the way there. The remaining light filtered through the trees, making it difficult to see. After a bit, she let me take the lead so I could track us back. By the time we reached the house, it was dark.

We shifted back and re clothed in the light of the floodlights surrounding the house. It was decidedly colder than when we left, so Annabelle headed towards the door immediately. She was met by Desiré; who did not look happy.

"_Where have you been?"_ she hissed, trying very hard not to lose her temper and shout.

"We went for a run," Annabelle replied steadily.

I walked up, coat and boots in hand. Instantly the glare turned towards me. I kept my face passive the whole time. This seemed to piss off Desiré even more. Good thing I really didn't care.

"Why would you let her go!?" She snarled accusingly.

I shrugged, "Kid's gotta shift."

"Something could have happened! To either of you!" She seemed to have tacked on that last part. Almost like she forgot that _I_ was important too. I rolled my eyes.

"Oh please," I sighed, "There's nothing in those trees that I couldn't handle."

"Says the person that was _kidnapped_," Desiré snapped.

"Yeah, when I was fucking _five_," I snorted in return. I saw an angry flush burst in her cheeks. Did she really have that big of a problem with my language? Oh, for fuck's sake.

"We were about to send Ethan and Marcus after you!" She continued.

Annabelle looked away in near-shame. Which made me angry. A cat should never have to apologize for shifting, especially on their own damn property! It's an integral part of who we are! I felt my hackles raise, I wasn't about to sit here and be berated like some fucking cub.

"She was with me! She was fine! Maybe if you let her go off on her own a bit more, she'd be a bit more comfortable with learning how to defend herself while in panther form! We come with claws and teeth attached, remember?" I practically shouted. "Keeping her locked up in the house will only drive her insane! Maybe if you paid more attention and used your fucking head, you'd know that."

I motioned Annabelle to follow me into the house as we left Desiré stunned into silence. I felt my teeth with my tongue, yup, they were shifted. Oops. Whatever, if she wanted me to be a leader, then she should start listening to me and quit trying to boss me around or treat me like a kid.

Even as I followed Annabelle up the stairs, I couldn't shake this little niggling thought that I shouldn't have talked to her mother like that. I might have just started a mini-feud between us, but I felt that those things were long over said. She acted like she'd never been stood up to before. I paused, she probably hadn't.

"Yeah, so, that was pretty awesome, I'm not gonna lie," Annabelle said after she'd shut the door; keeping her voice down so hopefully her mother wouldn't hear.

I looked around the room. It was kind of a wreck. Not that Kraglin really kept the tidiest of ships, but at least his clothes were always in one pile. Annabelle seemed to just fling shit where ever. It wasn't just clothes, either. There were flat little plastic cases of some kind, pens, pencils, a couple books and some other things that I couldn't identify. She went over to a chest and opened a drawer, piling more clothes on the floor as she rummaged through it.

"Hmmm… I don't think I have any PJs that'll fit you…" She muttered. I had no idea what that meant, but somewhere outside, I heard the crunch of gravel and slowly parted the blinds to peek outside.

Annabelle's room faced the front, so I watched as someone got out of a car and started walking up to the door, slinging a bag over their shoulder. From my vantage point, I couldn't tell if it was one of my brothers or not. Seconds later, the front door could be heard opening and the person entered. I carefully stalked my way out of the room so I could peek over the railing. Annabelle watched me curiously, darting to the window to see if she could tell what was going on.

The man that came through the door was yet another stranger to me. I let out a small sigh of disappointment as Marcus came down the hallway below me.

"Hey bro, how was the trip?"

The other cat sighed, "Uneventful, the intruder had already backtracked out of our territory by the time I got there."

"Huh, who'da thought we'd have a better time here…" Marcus trailed off. I could sense that dumb grin of his in his tone.

"Does it have anything to do with the new scent accompanied by the kid watching me from the loft?"

I growled as Marcus turned and looked up at me, grinning like a fool. He motioned with his head for me to come downstairs, I stayed where I was, crouched and looking through the wooden bars.

"C'mon Sonia, I don't think you ever met Jasper," Marcus called to me.

Jasper's eyes flew open in surprise as I narrowed my eyes. It was too much. There were too many new people, I just wanted my brothers. To my left, my father emerged from a room and stopped when he saw me there. I flicked an ear in his direction as he passed me by, going down the stairs.

"Welcome back, Jasper. I'm sorry your trip was a bust," my father said steadily. While he continued his conversation with Jasper, Marcus slowly turned and headed up the stairs in my direction. He sat on the top step, a couple meters away from me.

"How was your run?" He asked, watching my father and Jasper.

"It was fine, we went to the lake," I responded.

I saw Marcus nodding out of the corner of my eye, "Not bad, how did Annie do in keeping up?"

'_Annie'? _"She did alright, considering that she's apparently not allowed to shift whenever she wants to," I said, hearing the slight note of bitterness in my tone.

Marcus must have picked up on it too, as he looked over at me, studying my face. I felt nervous under his gaze, which was glaringly obvious even when I wasn't directly looking back at him.

"How are _you_ doing?" He asked softly, voice full of concern.

I turned my face to him at this. Steeling my reserve, I locked eyes with Marcus, "I'm fucking fine."

He didn't respond. No reaction, he reminded me a lot of Jackson. Which reminded me, "When will my other brothers get here?" I asked.

Marcus shrugged in my direction, "Hard to say. I heard back from Wes today, but who knows how long it'll take him and his wife and kid to get here; they're on the other side of the country."

That wasn't what I wanted to know. "What about Jackson?" I asked quietly.

He sighed, "I must have sent him about 80 e-mails. I know how close you two were so I'm trying my hardest to get him to respond. I'm hoping if I send enough it'll annoy him into checking."

I looked at him in wonder. He was doing that for me? Purposely trying to annoy Jackson into responding didn't seem like the best course of action, but I didn't know all of the factors at play, here. Hopefully Jackson's big dumb face made an appearance here soon, so I could just ask it myself.

"Hey, I understand how hard this all must be for you-"

"You don't understand the half of it!" I snapped, growling in Marcus' direction. He stared back at me blankly, unsure of how to proceed.

I stood up and starting walking into Annabelle's room, where I could at least shut the door when Marcus said, "I would if you'd tell us."

I paused, looking back at him over my shoulder. He was leaning back on his elbows and staring blankly down the stairs, his brother and my father having left a few minutes ago. If he felt my stare, he ignored it. I turned back and shut the door, for what little good it did us with our heightened hearing. I wanted as much peace as I could get. Annabelle was already asleep, so I shifted and curled up in a ball just inside the door so I'd awaken if anyone tried to enter. It wasn't long before I said goodnight to the longest fucking day of my life.

**Haven't had a fun fact in awhile, have we?  
How about...  
The lights on the NovaCorp's armor are called "Occulights" and represent the three suns of Xandar.  
~F2tM**


	7. Testing - Sonia

**Sooo... I really have no good excuses for this one being so fucking late. Except that from Monday through late Thursday I got a grand total of ten hours of sleep. But I had the weekend off, so I'm just lazy. And I was babysitting a crazy dog. And now we have a new baby kitten (She's fucking adorable and her name is Babou like the ocelot from Archer)**

**So, as always, please review.**

It was a good thing that I was sleeping by the door; as the second that I felt it touch my fur I sprang up, awake and alert. I had fallen more asleep than I was planning on doing; it was strange living in a place with day cycles again. For so long I lived in deep space that I forgot what it was like to shift from light to dark. Day to night. Man, was the sun this bright yesterday? I squinted at the light that filtered in through the curtains covering the windows and slowly looked around.

Annabelle was sitting at a desk with cords hanging from her ears. I could hear music coming from that direction as she continued to watch the moving screen in front of her. The door behind me nudged again and I started up a low growl as I slunk away from the door to be at a better angle of attack if that proved necessary.

It didn't, as Daré popped his head into the room, scowling as he looked down at me.

"Don't be a fire hazard."

What the fuck did that even mean? I stopped my growl when he motioned for me to follow him. I gathered up my clothes and quietly exited Annabelle's room without her noticing. Once out of the room, I shouldered the door closed behind me and shifted back. Daré promptly turned to face away from me until I'd shaken my jacket into place. I didn't need it, I was plenty warm without it, but it made me feel safer.

As Daré started to lead me down the stairs I asked, "Where are we going?"

"To the basement, for assessment," was the reply I got. I honestly forgot that we even had a basement. I continued following him down, swiping an apple as we passed through the kitchen and sinking my fangs into it. Daré shot me a confused look over his shoulder and I shrugged in return. I was hungry. God, why did this house feel so empty? I could hear birds chirping outside and instantly I wanted to fling the door open and go hunt them. I briefly wondered about what other animals were out in those woods when I reached the landing of the basement. My father, Ethan, Marcus and Jasper were already down there. Well, we found everyone else.

"She was already shifted when I went to get her," Daré reported. I eyed him, was that a bad thing? Judging by my father's harp inhale, it was. I stared at him, chewing on more of my apple, savoring the juice that I hadn't been able to taste for most of my life.

After a small sigh, my father explained, "It'd be better if you were fully rested and not unduly fatigued. Maybe we should postpone until this afternoon, after you've time to rest."

"It makes no difference to me," I said after swallowing, "One extra shift isn't going to affect anything."

My father looked unsure but waved Ethan over anyways. He was wearing a baseball cap and holding a clipboard. He glanced down at the first sheet, reading it.

"Okay, what we're going to do first is test your human form, break for lunch and then test your panther form. So, first up, height and weight," he clicked his pen, holding it above the paper.

I paused, thinking. "262 microbules and around 806 grets?" I said, assuming they wanted my human measurements.

There was a collective groan around the room as Daré glared at me, "Stop messing around, Sonia."

I shot him a confused look as I took a last bite of my apple, aiming the core at the trash can near the landing. What did I do now? Ethan glanced at Daré, nervously before scribbling something.

"Nevermind, we'll get our measurements later," he said quickly. I detected a strange attribute to his scent. Did he not believe me about the Galaxy either? Good gods, what will it take to convince these people? Ethan looked at me and continued, "Let's move onto the physical aspects, we'll do mental testing before lunch." At my puzzled look he explained, "Like, math, reading, general knowledge."

"Well that one's easy enough," I said, "I can't read."

"Of course you can't…" I heard Daré mutter from across the room. Rolling my eyes I steadied my gaze with Ethan, who let out a small sigh.

"We'll figure it out later."

After that they put me through the paces of what our indoor gym could handle. They tested my speed, strength, balance and stamina. I guess I did pretty well, as while I was panting next to the treadmill after my run, Marcus peeked at Ethan's paper and let out a low, impressed whistle. My hand-to-hand combat and armed combat were another story, entirely.

"Come on, Sonia! Stop shifting!" My father shouted as I pinned Jasper to the floor, yet again.

"I'm not!" I snarled back. At least not consciously. When Kraglin was training me, he encouraged any advantage I had over my opponent, so I never practiced _not_ shifting during combat.

At a signal from my father, Jasper and I parted. I looked behind me to see him shaking his head. He was displeased at something. Did he think I wasn't taking this seriously? I scowled and snatched my jacket off the weight stack where I'd left it. Good on me, cos our next set of tests took us outside. They decided to just do my general knowledge test along the way, assuming that reading and maths were going to be fails anyways. Smart of them.

Outside, the crisp air greeting my face with a fierce intensity. The wind was much stronger than yesterday. The scent of the trees wafted around us, sparking my excitement. Were they going to let me shift yet?

The answer to that was no, they wanted to test my stealth first. I sighed as they dispersed in the woods, waiting to see how quickly and quietly I could approach them. Turns out, all those past escapes of mine were good training, as life or death situations usually are. I tapped all three of the guys' shoulders in no time while my father looked on.

After a lunch break, we headed back outside, much to my delight. I felt so much freer among the grass and trees. I spent way too many years in cages or in trade centers like Knowhere to take nature for granted. Finally it was time for my bread and butter, shifting.

Everything was a test, it turns out. Even my shifting speed, which I had just assumed was normal, but apparently wasn't. I shook out my fur, feeling much more at ease on four paws again.

"Somewhere in the woods, we hid something of Marcus'," Ethan told me as I bobbed my head in understanding, still absorbing the feel-good vibes from the trees. "The cold air should make tracking more of a challenge, so your job is to return here with the item. You have twenty minutes."

I headed for the treeline, closing my eyes to focus on the scents. I started sorting them into known and unknown, isolating Marcus' in my memory and trying to focus on it. Once I pulled up the scent from my mental catalogue I weaved around, searching for it.

It didn't take long for me to find it and sprint in its direction. Scurrying up a tree it wasn't long before I found the dark green wristband hanging off a branch. Gripping it in my teeth I quickly made my way back. I sat the fabric at Ethan's feet and resettled my fur, dislodging the needles and leaves I'd picked up.

"Huh." Ethan commented, picking up the band. I glanced over at Marcus and he gave me a thumbs up.

That display was the only major thing of note, as after that, we essentially repeated everything else I'd already done, but in my panther form. It was all super boring and repetitive. I just wanted to explore the forest some more. Yet another sparring session with Jasper followed suit, and I actually found myself having to severely hold back for fear that I might injure or kill him. He fought very much like a human with another body. He seemed totally out of sync with his animal self, barely making use of his other heightened senses. Is this how all Terran shifters fought? Oh man, no wonder they were so adamant about me staying.

Shifting back, Jasper and I reclothed as Ethan summarized my results.

"You seem much more suited to your panther form, which I didn't even think was possible. Although, if you spent more time as panther than human then I guess that makes sense," Ethan seemed slightly puzzled. "Human fighting is a struggle for you when you keep partially shifting like that-"

"Which no one warned me about, by the way," Jasper commented, "Thanks for that."

Marcus let out a slight snicker as Ethan shot him a look, "Be better prepared for surprises in a fight," he returned his attention to me, "Your tracking was above average, panther combat, exceptional, what we need to focus on the most is teaching you how to read, I think." Ethan concluded.

I snorted, "I got by this far in life without needing to know how, I'll take a pass on that."

My father spoke up, "No, you need to learn. Otherwise you'll have to rely on others to constantly relay information to you and it would take too long if there were ever an emergency within the Clan."

"I have no intention of ruling," I shook my head, "I thought I made that clear, but I guess not. I have unfinished business elsewhere."

My father blatantly ignored me, and instead, dismissed me to shower and prepare for dinner. Good gods, I was too old for this kind of treatment. Nevertheless, I showered out of necessity and wrung my hair out the best I could. Walking down to the kitchen for food, I heard Annabelle having another argument with Desiré. From the sounds of it, Desiré didn't want Annabelle hanging around me anymore because I was a 'bad influence,' to which, I had to agree. I didn't really have a normal, just and mentally stable upbringing.

They stopped with the discussion as soon as they spotted me, stealing glares at each other. I didn't let it bother me as I loaded up a plate with burgers. Lots of them, I couldn't remember the last time I felt fully fed. Satisfied that I had enough, I sat at the table and dug in. It was like pure heaven, being able to finish one and instantly start on more food was a luxury I'd seldom been able to afford. It appeared that I wasn't alone in my appetite, as the other guys had similarly loaded plates. Almost instantly, Jasper and Marcus were placing bets on who could eat the most burgers. I watched in amusement as they shoveled one after another into their faces. Desiré put an end to it as soon as she realized what they were doing, much to our collective disappointment.

The rest of dinner passed us by without incident. I passed my finally empty plate to Jasper, who appeared to have dishwashing duty tonight. I sat back down at the table, unsure of what to do. Seconds later, Marcus sat opposite of me and drummed his hands on the table.

"Hey, wanna drink with us on the north backlot?"

I can't say that I was surprised by his offer. If I remembered correctly, Marcus and I were the same age. I was a little surprised at the location, though. Generally, the senior members of the crew lived at the north backlot, with the new hires/recruits on the east one. Nevertheless, it sounded like a good way to relax a little after today's stress. I don't even want to talk about my shooting test. I couldn't adjust to the weight difference and all of Tajuun's lessons went to utter waste. Why the fuck were Terran guns so light?

I nodded at Marcus while taking a sip of my water before standing up to hand it to Jasper to be washed. Marcus gave a small wave to his brother as we went out the door.

The north backlot was only a few hundred meters away from the main house, but it seemed further due to the large expanse of grass that stretched along one side of the path. I remembered watching my brothers play football there.

The walk didn't take long at all, and soon we were walking through the front door of a much smaller house. From the landing we were looking directly into a decent sized living room with a large screen and some places for sitting. The kitchen was to our left and stairs leading up to our right. I could see a hallway leading further back but couldn't tell what was back there. I instantly felt more comfortable in here as there was clutter everywhere. The main house felt cold, empty and like no one lived there. This house had a much warmer vibe to it. The dirty dishes on the coffee table, the empty glasses and scraps of garbage everywhere were proof that people lived here. I felt myself relax a bit. Although, not as much as I'd like once I saw that there was yet _another fucking stranger_ sitting on the couch.

This guy was only a little bit older than me, it seemed, with long dark brown hair that was tied at the base of his neck. He had a couple days' worth of stubble and, curiously enough, was wearing thin, wire framed glasses. As werepanthers, we all had perfect eyesight, why would he need glasses? He didn't even glance back at us, but kept his attention focused on the screen, fiddling with a little remote-like thing in his hands.

"Where'd you find this one, Marcus?" he asked, without tearing his eyes away from the screen. "You know the rule about bringing outsiders here, even if they'll be gone by morning."

I felt my hackles raise involuntarily. A low growl started up in my throat as Marcus sighed and stepped into the kitchen and the couch-sitter spun around, angry.

"Hey, remember whose territory you're on!" he snarled, stopping short with he fully saw me.

"Yes, it's mine." I responded curtly.

"Oh shit," he muttered, "I-"

"Hey cuz, what's your poison of choice?" Marcus called from the kitchen, head buried in the icebox.

"Whatever you have, I'm not picky," I called back. Silently, I moved to another couch and sat down there. The other guy's gaze followed the whole time. I felt like he was stalking me. I didn't like it.

"Jesus, maybe I _should_ have gone up to the main house. When Henrik told me there was situation he was handling, I thought he meant something with Annie," he commented, grabbing a bottle of beer from the small table next to him and taking a swig.

Marcus walked in the room and handed me a glass of something before settling down next to me. He was uncomfortably close. I let out a small hiss and glared at him. He scootched to the farther side of the couch.

Bringing the glass to my nose, I gave it a whiff and detected copious amounts of rum with some sort of sweet mixer. I tentatively gave it a sip.

"What'd you give her?" The other guy asked Marcus.

"Just rum and Coke," he replied, "Well, more like rum with a splash of Coke in it."

"Good god, if she pukes, I'm not cleaning it up this time."

"Calm down, Gray, she'll be fine! She lived with space pirates! I'm sure she had plenty of rum up there!" Marcus countered.

While they were talking, I'd finished almost the whole glass and was starting to feel the effects. It wasn't nearly as strong as Stygian rum, but it was rather tasty and went down a hundred times easier.

"Space pirates? Really?" Gray had his eyebrow raised when I turned my attention to the screen. Which was still. I wasn't sure what I was looking at, but it certainly wasn't a live feed of any kind.

"Yeah, that's what she said yesterday," Marcus said slowly. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him looking at me. I nodded.

"Essentially, yes. They were pirates."

Gray started laughing a bit, "Did they say 'Arrr' and 'Matey'?"

"No," I said, puzzled. What did those things even mean? Marcus threw a pillow at him.

"What map are you playing?" He asked.

Gray picked up the little remote-thing again suddenly the screen came to life. "Drone."

The screen looked like the view of someone running around. Every now and then it would zoom in and crosshairs appeared as a shot was fired off. What was this thing? I kept watching, intrigued as other people were found and killed. After Gray had apparently found them all, a wall of text and numbers appeared.

"Huh, only 76%? Psh, give me that," Marcus scoffed as he held his hand out to Gray, who handed him the little black remote.

They kept passing it back and forth for a bit, eventually doing something they referred to as live which apparently involved other people playing from other places. It was only a game, but it was very entertaining to watch. Jasper came in shortly after that, apparently done with the dishes. I got up and refilled my glass as he sat down next to Gray and was quickly worked into the rotation. I watched each of them have another run before asking if I could try.

After a brief explanation of the different buttons and how to move around the field, I was turned loose. It was extremely difficult and seconds later, I was killed. I tried a few more times, but I couldn't find a good way to remember how to even move around. I passed off the controller to Gray. Marcus gave a small chuckle and I refilled my glass again. It was more fun to watch, anyways. As we all got progressively drunker, the game quickly became forgotten as coordination went out the window. Gray grabbed another small remote and the screen changed.

"Oh, _excellent_! 'Tremors'!" Marcus exclaimed, shooting Jasper a wicked grin.

I'd never seen a movie before. Commercials, cage-fights and news segments: yes. This was much more fun. We had found it fairly close to the beginning and were ten minutes farther into it when Ethan open the front door and came in.

"There you all are," he commented, taking in the bottles, glasses and the remnant of a bag of chips that Gray had torn open an hour earlier. "Gray, I didn't know you were back, yet."

"Oh yeah, I called Henrik on my way up. Nothing of importance really happened, they agreed to the terms so it was pretty open and shut. I hate that affairs like this can't just be settled over the damn phone," Gray said, watching in rapt interest as a giant wormlike creature devoured a truck on-screen.

"What were you doing?" I asked.

Gray glanced over to me, "Negotiating with one of the Clans of lions to the south. They wanted an equal-weights vote in global shifter affairs instead of having us handle their politics anymore."

I forgot that the lions were essentially under our dominion. They mostly stuck to the southern regions and hated to travel. Us panthers were a bit more widespread, as we were more adaptable. Only extreme heat bothered us, but lions can't take humidity very well. I didn't know that they stayed out of _global_ affairs, though. Gods, how on earth could I remember all of this?

"Okay, glad that's settled, that's less for us to deal with as a whole," Ethan remarked, turning to head upstairs. "Keep it down, would you? Some of us have to actually do work around here."

Marcus, who'd had his back to Ethan, made a mocking face which I couldn't help but give a small smile to. Nonetheless, we turned down the volume on the TV a couple clicks when we turned our focus back on.

Towards the end of the exploding worm movie (which was pretty fantastic, even though it didn't look believable at all, especially after you've seen more than one ghari in your life) we heard the approach of yet another person. We all exchanged confused looks as the footsteps got closer. All the enforcers were here and accounted for. Obviously, this newcomer wasn't an enemy, as them using the fucking front door was just asinine, however, in our drunken state, we were pretty alert as the knob turned. My heart just about beat right out of my chest.

Standing in the doorway, was the man I'd been waiting for. Jackson Iversen, my brother, my best friend, and only person on this planet who I could still give my full trust to, stood quite a bit taller than I remember. His wavy black hair was grown out to the point where it looked as though he'd just rolled out of bed, which I distinctly remember being his favorite look, I knew it was held that way with gell. His neat-trimmed beard didn't look nearly as wild and he was wearing a button-down shirt with his coat thrown over. Slacks and black boots nearly completed his ensemble. It was only perfect when he locked eyes with me, and adopted his famous, lazy, grin that instantly put you at grin.

"Hey Sonny."

**I would be utterly shock if I'm able to get chapter 8 posted by Tuesday. I apologize in advance. Like, all the apologies. Please take them!**

**~F2tM**


	8. Little Talks - Sonia

***beep! beep! beep!* Know what that sound is? It's a dump truck full of apologies. There's enough for everyone, and more on the way. Truckloads and truckloads of apologies.**

**I got horrendously sick and then had a birthday party to plan for (mine~ 3) So things got a little chaotic around here.**

**However, just reassuring you all that I have NOT abandoned this story. Nor will I. I have the plot worked out in its entirety, it's just a matter of getting it down in the correct sequence. There are only a couple small details to iron out. But it's still in my mind everyday. Don't worry. I'm taking my vacation time soon, and if my boyfriend and I don't end up going anywhere, I will be devoting A LOT of time to this. So hopefully I can get ahead. If not, I'm going to try my hardest to not have a gap like this again in between uploads.**

**Here's another truck. *beep! beep!***

At the sound of someone sputtering and choking, Jackson's face was changed to a look of confusion as he turned his head. I kept my eyes on him, memorizing the new lines of his face, worn, tired and strained-looking. Where had _he_ been all these years?

"Jesus Christ! How are you here so fast!?" Marcus exclaimed after he'd recovered from choking on his beer.

What a colorful expletive, by the way. I'd have to ask Jackson about it later.

"Turns out the red eye is pretty fast," Jackson shrugged, slipping his coat off in the process, "Also, I was only a few states away."

"Where are you holed up now?" Jasper asked.

"Boston."

Gray shot him a snide grin, "Liking all those Boston babes?"

Jackson smiled as he sat down next to me, "Oh, you know it." He turned to look at me, "How has Sonny been?"

I shrugged, "I've been worse."

Laughing, Jackson eyed one of Marcus' beers, "Got any left?"

At Marcus' nod, Jackson was up again and heading towards the kitchen. Sitting back down, he popped the top off with ease and took a swig. "Oh, by the way," he directed at Marcus, "Thanks for completely fucking blowing up my phone."

Marcus laughed in reply, "Yeah, well. It was important and you haven't responded to any of us in 13 years. I needed to get your attention."

"Yeah well, you had it after the fortieth e-mail," Jackson said, dryly. "Once I saw they were all from you, with increasingly entertaining subject lines, I might add, I actually opened one. I really liked 'Hey Fuckface, Stop Being An Asshat And Come Ho-' by the way."

"Ah yes," Marcus nodded, "I saw that it got cut off right at 'Home' and thought 'well, it fits.'" He grinned again.

"I'm pretty sure of all the hoes out there, Jackson needs to be told to come the least," Jasper sniped.

"Hey!" Jackson shouted, "Not in front of my sister, dude!"

I rolled my eyes, I wasn't _unused_ to raunchy talk. It was a bit more disturbing when it was in regards to my brother, though. Ah well, I'd heard worse throughout the years. Especially when alcohol was involved.

"It's cool, man," Marcus said nonchalantly, "She was a sex slave."

"For space pirates," Gray quipped.

"Neither of you are correct," I responded, noting Jackson's gaping mouth. He looked a little bit more at ease, but shot Marcus a dirty look over my head anyways.

"So, were they not space pirates?" Marcus grinned at me. I sighed.

"They're more… mercenaries? I don't know. As far as owners that I've been with, I was with them almost the longest." I shrugged before continuing, "But I was still a bit too concerned with keeping myself safe to worry about them or their politics."

"Oh, so they weren't as cool as they sound?" Marcus sounded a tad disappointed.

"In general, being sold isn't cool," I frowned. The room seemed to sober up a little at that. I could only hope that they were imagining what I must have been through.

"How many times?" Jackson whispered.

"How many times what?" I replied. He looked up from his beer and locked eyes with me.

"How many times were you sold?"

"I don't know," I said truthfully.

"I thought it was like, twelve or something?" Marcus asked. I shook my head at him. I heard my rings softly chime as they hit each other, I knew that they were what he was thinking of.

"No, I had many more than that. Some were only for a few days before they sold me off elsewhere," I took quite a few drinks. This conversation was going in a direction that I didn't quite care for very much.

Jackson let out a hiss, "I'll kill them all."

I sighed, "Good luck, half of them are dead already and the other half are gods know where."

"Did _you_ kill them?" Gray asked, his voice nearly silent and incredibly somber.

"Yes." I replied. There was a collective sharp inhale. Was that the wrong answer?

"No one tell my dad," Jackson instantly said, "Sonia, we'll get this figured out, I promise."

"What?" I asked, "What did I do?"

"Killing is one of our top offenses! You broke one of our three major laws!" Jasper shouted.

I let out a low growl, Jackson shot me a strange look, "I'll remember that the next time I'm about to be raped."

The room was nearly silent after that. The only sounds could be heard coming from the low volume on the screen as well as footsteps heading towards the stairs. Ethan's head quickly appeared at the top of them.

"What the hell are you doing? _Some_ of us have patrol in the morning. _Marcus,_" he snarled, eyes narrowed.

"No I don't. Jasper does," Marcus retorted, leaning back on the couch.

"What? Since when?" Jasper exclaimed.

"Since you lost our bet earlier today," came the smooth reply.

"You mean, since you _cheated_ earlier?"

"No, she pinned you more than five times total, I won."

"You never told me she could partial shift!"

Jackson and Gray shot me confused looks, that I'm sure I mirrored as I was very unaware that they had placed bets on me. Although, it didn't much surprise me.

"Enough!" Ethan growled, "_Both_ of you are coming on dawn patrol with me now."

Oh wait, they were probably confused since neither of _them_ knew that I could partial shift either. I shot them my very best 'meh' look as Jasper and Marcus let out twin groans aimed at Ethan.

"Fuck," Marcus said, drawing out the monosyllabic word. Him and Jasper gave each other angry looks before standing up.

"Well, I guess we had better get to bed," Jasper sighed. Picking up a couple bottles and taking them to the kitchen.

"This is terrible, now I'm going to have a headache during patrol," Marcus pouted. He slowly headed upstairs, trying to give us his saddest look before his head cleared the ceiling. Ethan glared at him as he trudged past, still waiting for Jasper to follow his order. Which he did, shortly after his brother. Ethan rolled his eyes as he wearily exited our view, leaving Gray, Jackson and myself to the downstairs.

"Well," Hm, maybe not, as Gray made motions to also go to bed. "I'm not used to staying up this late and I've been on the road most of the day. So, I think I'll also take my leave, Your Highness," he shot me a smirk as I rolled my eyes.

Gray proceeded to stand up, give a stupid little bow just for the effect of annoying me, which he did, and then head towards the stairs. He winked at me before disappearing from sight.

"Gods, dad employs weird cats," I commented, knowing full well that any and all awake parties upstairs could hear me.

Jackson agreed with a "Hm." I studied my brother carefully, still on the couch next to me. He seemed to be staring at the place where Gray had been moments before, focused on the very fibers on the couch. His jaw was set square, he wasn't even fidgeting, which he did constantly. Jackson seemed to be fully engulfed in his own mind, a state that I was more than familiar with.

"Hey," I whispered, getting his attention, "Where's Boston?"

With that simple question, my brother's face eased up considerably as he smiled at me, "Lacking a little in geography, are we?"

I grinned, "I know the rest of the Galaxy better than you do, you can cut me a _little_ slack when it comes to Terra."

Jackson frowned slightly, "It's called 'Earth,' not- nevermind, it's not important. Boston is still in this country, it's really not that far from here, statewise anyways. I move around a lot, though. Before Boston I was in LA with Wes and his family."

"What's his kid like?" I asked, suddenly interested. I remember Marcus saying he had a kid. I didn't even know the sex, however.

"Shawn? He's pretty chill. I think he's 15 now? I don't remember off the top of my head. We used to just hangout and mostly listen to music, he's pretty into Nirvana, which of course, you don't know who they are," Jackson trailed off, remembering.

"So, why all the moves?" I kept the conversational ball rolling.

Jackson shrugged, "I just couldn't cope with losing my best friend. We all thought you were gone for good, Sonny. And we all thought that dad was totally losing it. After Wes leaving to marry Amber and Gun and dad having their big blow-up, it was only a matter of time before I left, too. I couldn't keep watching as our family tore itself apart." Jackson looked down at his hands as he kept rubbing his knuckle. I mindlessly watched too, trying to find the words. "The final straw was Daré naming his kid after _her_. He tried to name her after you, but we actually had a physical brawl over that one." He reached up and scratched the back of his head, giving me a weak, insincere smile at his words.

"I'm glad you changed his mind, it'd be even creepier if she had my _name_ too," I said, trying to lighten the mood. Of which I had zero practice in doing. Jackson's smile deepened, guess I did something right.

"Anyways, that's about it in a nutshell, now I want to know about you, based on what you've already mentioned and hinted at, there's been a lot of bad. Has there been any good times out there in space?" Jackson rested his chin on his hand, giving me his full attention, eager to know my past.

I sighed, unsure of what to say. "You need to know my whole past, Jackson. I'm not even close to the same person I was when I left Terra, and you need to know why. I know you don't want to hear it, but after I left here, I had every kind of bad owner imaginable."

Jackson gave a visible shudder, "Stop saying 'owner.' It gives me the willies."

"What else should I call them?" I asked, confused by his phrase, but not wanting to be a nuisance about requiring everything to be explained to me. Jackson shrugged at my question, unsure of an answer. After taking a few more swigs of rum from the bottle, I kept going, "At first, it to families with small children or collectors who wanted a 'rare Terran creature.' Of course, I didn't want anything to do with any of them, and once I shifted back into my human form, they didn't want me either."

"So, they sold you where?" Jackson asked, eyes glued to me.

"To whoever they could get to buy me. Occasionally it was back to the person who had sold me to them to begin with, but they'd never turn me loose, I was too valuable," I looked at the couch cushion between us. There was a little hole in the fabric that I picked at mindlessly.

"When did you start killing?" He asked in a hushed voice.

I couldn't meet his eyes. I knew that he didn't really want to know the answer. "Seven."

My bangs fluttered as Jackson let out a sharp sigh. I wanted to run and hide in shame. Disappointing myself was something I could live with. Disappointing Jackson was another story entirely. I always felt like I was letting him down. This chapter of my life required even more drinks.

"My owner then was a monster of a man. He was a Kree/Xandarian mix, born with pure hatred in his heart. He wanted me for the prestige of owning a rare and potentially dangerous creature. He wanted to train me so I would listen to only him and destroy anyone he wished. Whenever I would shift back, whether on purpose or on accident, he would beat me. It only took a couple weeks before I just couldn't take it anymore. He quickly found out that he'd underestimated me. I'll never forget the blood…"

Although I'd done much worse and horrific things later in my life, this one occasion is still one that stands out to me the most. It was the death of not only a brutal creature, but also to my innocence. It was in that moment that I knew there was no going back. If I was to be a monster, I had to be the best monster I could become in order to have any hope of survival. I leaned my head against the rectangular glass bottle, willing the contents within to be stronger.

"A few years after that, I hit puberty; and everything became that much worse," I paused, sensing a flinch in Jackson. I knew that he didn't want to hear all of this, but it was an important part of my history. "A new angle was found in selling me-"

"A sex slave." Jackson said bluntly. Knowing the exact direction it was going.

"Yes," I confirmed. "I was sold as a sex slave, and that was when the most killing happened. I just couldn't submit to them. So I spent almost all of my time in my panther form," I said, pausing to catch my breath. My vision was shaking and my head felt light, I'd never shared this much of myself.

"How often would you shift back?" Jackson asked, his eyes boring into mine; searching for the answer. I was almost taken aback by the question, as when I mentioned this to Kraglin, he pretty much only questioned my virginity. It made sense that Jackson would be a little more in tune as to how prolonged periods of pantherness would assist in a mental instability, however.

"I would only shift back when necessary. If I needed hands to escape or to help get tools to assist in killing my owners, I'd shift. But all other times, I spent as a panther, to ward off potential rapes with my teeth and claws," I accentuated.

"So, you were never… um…" Jackson trailed off. Finally questioning what I thought he would.

"No." I answered his question in a hushed tone. A look of relief crossed his face. Whether or not it was true, I would have said 'no' anyways. Just to spare him the thought of his baby sister being violated in such a way. "After many missing limbs and lives, I was eventually sold to Yarzon. He kept trying to pass me off as a guard for valuables. Turns out that I'm far from a Protector, though." I sighed.

"So, it was all bad?" Jackson asked after a few seconds. I wasn't sure of how to proceed with the next chapter of my life. I gave the smallest hint of a smile.

"Not entirely."

Jackson flashed me a wry grin. "What's his name?"

"I wa- wait, what?" I asked, fully comprehending what he'd just asked. How'd he know?

Jackson's grin intensified, taking on a devillish quality. "Let's just say, that I'm pretty familiar with these matters." He tapped his chin, pretending to ponder something, "So, I asked again? What's his name?"

"Kraglin," I responded. Jackson made a face.

"'Kraglin'? That's a weird name," he commented.

I chuckled a little, "Of course it is, you're used to Terran names. I could shoot many more at you that sound weirder than his."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. So anyways," Jackson rolled his eyes jokingly, "So… did he buy you, or…?"

"Yeah, after we had a little stand off which was the result of him stepping on my tail," I said, dryly.

"Was he the pirate?" Jackson asked next, swilling his beer before finishing it off.

"Yes, he's the First Mate," I elaborated.

"Wow, First Mate? That's like… second in command? Right?"

I nodded at Jackson's question. "Yeah, he's pretty high ranking, I'm still at the bottom of the crew."

"So what? You guys can't be together?" Jackson asked.

I shrugged, "I'm not sure that it's an issue anymore."

Having been provided the perfect in to my tale, I started to relay to Jackson about my life on the Eclector. About Kraglin, Caption Yondu, even Arvo and his goons. Jackson kept shooting me little smiles, which in turn brought more to my face as well. I enjoyed telling him about the happiest time of my life. I told him about about how Kraglin treated me, and how it was different than anything else I'd ever known. There was no pressure, no scheming, no ulterior motive. Or so I thought. My face fell slowly as I talked about our arrest after leaving Dervani. In a few short minutes, my life had taken a 180 from the direction that I thought it'd been heading. The fun, happy memories of the weeks before were turned sour by the actual event.

"After I shifted back to human, I walked past him, and haven't seen him since," I concluded. Jackson gave me a sad smile.

"Oh Sonny," he whispered. A pained look on his face. "You've really no idea do you?"

Huh? "What are you talking about?" I asked, confused. Did he notice something that I didn't? Granted, I wasn't that great at figuring out people, as I mostly avoided them my whole life.

"He loves you," Jackson explained, smiling.

"No he doesn't," I countered. "He said so himself."

Jackson shook his head, "He was protecting you, kiddo."

I continued to give him a blank stare. He sighed and continued.

"What would have happened if these officers had known what you were? Or that you were partners?"

"Arrested me?" Maybe? I was unsure.

"Yes, he was taking the fall for you. You complicated that by shifting back, so he had to cover for you in some other way. This was the best way he thought to protect you!" Jackson's tone had taken on a slight hint of annoyance.

Meanwhile, I was hit with a ton of bricks. How could I have missed it? Of course he was trying to protect me! We were _partners_, of course he'd have my back. I let out a sigh and buried my face into my hands. I saw and expected the worst in people, and that apparently had included Kraglin. Never again would I doubt him. I needed to get to him.

"I made a terrible mistake," I took a deep breath and reached into my inner coat pocket. "I need your help getting back to that region of the Galaxy."

Jackson raised an eyebrow, "How am I supposed to do that?"

I pulled out the little paper that Stark had given me. "I don't know what this slip is, but it apparently can help us," I handed Jackson the card. I'd looked it over again before going to sleep the night before, but I'd been able to decipher no more than I had the first time I saw it.

"Sonny, this is a business card for-" Jackson's eyes went from rolling to widened as he looked at it. "For Tony fucking Stark. Why- why do you have Tony Stark's business card?" He didn't take his eyes off it, as though he feared it disappearing.

"He's Nova Corp's Terran contact. Some deal he worked out after he was caught violating boundaries with Quill." I shrugged, "So, do you know what it means? There's a bunch of numbers on it."

"Yeah, phone and fax. People still use fax machines? Huh, weird," Jackson seemed a little lost in thought before snapping his attention back to me. "We can't call him tonight, it's even later in his time zone than it is here, we can do it tomorrow."

I nodded, taking his word as a promise. Jackson was going to help me, to my surprise, the pit of unease that had been resting in my stomach since leaving Kraglin's M-ship lessened a little. I guess my body knew more about the situation than my head did. Now that a course of action was decided and I had a definite goal, I felt a little more relaxed. I wouldn't be fully better until I could talk to Kraglin again, though.

**I sincerely hope that this was worth the wait. This is another reason that I took so long in uploading. I couldn't find the way to get this section down perfectly. I'm still not entirely happy with the exchange, but I'm happy enough with it. It's an important scene. Took a little extra TLC.**

**~F2tM**


	9. Waiting Game - Sonia

***8,652 YEARS LATER***

**I...I have no excuse that could possibly handle this situation. I dropped off the face of the Earth, and I'm terribly sorry for that. Let's just say that I gave my life's snowglobe one hell of a shake. However, I'm back and have literally nothing else going on, as well as I reliable way to always be connected to my lovely Google Drive so I'm going to try and get this portion of Sonia and Kraglin's journeys written and posted.**

**Also, to everyone who got the 'false alarm' last night/this morning: more buckets of apologies are on the way! I posted this chapter, but something went wrong with the script and the writing got all mixed in with a bunch of code. My words were still in there, but it was brought to my attention by the wonderful Hiniko, and I took it down. However, I was in the middle of something else on my computer at the time and wasn't able to repost it until now. So... Apologies.**

The night ended there for Jackson, who rolled over on the couch, somewhat giddy about Stark's card, still, and fell asleep. Was that stupid piece of paper really all that cool? Huh, maybe I'll let him keep it after this. I stayed fully awake for a few more minutes, staring up at the wooden ceiling and contemplating. I kept replaying Kraglin and I's last encounter, trying to pick up what Jackson could in seconds. After a few more run-throughs, it made sense to me, too. Especially when I thought back a few days before the incident. I gave myself a small smile as I remembered all of good times again.

I tried to sleep, but I was too wired. Every muscle in my body was twitching at the aspect of seeing Kraglin again, my heart fluttered repeatedly when I thought of how he loved me. Was it possible that I loved him back? I think so, it was hard to say. I've only ever heard love discussed in mocking tones as something that wasn't real, or should be ignored. I never put much stock into the word. Whether or not I was capable, this was probably the closest that I'd ever come to experiencing it.

Thinking myself in circles, and eager to get the next day started so we could call Stark, I was very aware of the moment that Ethan, Jasper and Marcus awoke. Well, Ethan mostly. It took him a couple tries to wake up the brothers, finally threatening them with some kind of whistle. I gave myself a slight chuckle at the unmistakable sound of Marcus rolling out of his bed to crash on the floor at that threat. What the hell was it?

As much as it was a comfort to hear the stirrings of life, I didn't want to talk to anyone quite yet. Which is why, when the trio came down, my eyes were closed in an attempt to feign sleep. I deepened my breathing and willed my heart to take on its resting pattern similar to when I was in catnap mode.

When the door closed behind them, Jackson made a couple small movements on the couch. I glanced over at him but it was pretty clear that he was asleep. His mini-pad (cell-phone? Was that it?) made a chime and lit up. I quietly crept over to it, curious.

There was a light at the bottom of the device that kept flashing different colors, however, those paled in comparison to what alit the main screen. It was an old picture of Jackson and I. My throat clenched as I realized it was taken the day that I left Terra. I picked up the small device to get a better look, straining my eyes at the bright light in the darkened room. I stared at it sadly for a few seconds before the light cut out and the screen went black, the button at the bottom still flashing. I looked so happy in that picture. It was so long ago, I could barely recognize myself.

I made my way back to the couch and sat there a few more hours, staring at the ceiling and thinking. When Jackson finally started waking up, I snapped my head in his direction. He slowly sat up, his curly hair a wild mess and gave a huge stretch accompanied by a yawn. He ran his hand through his hair in a poor attempt to tame it before shooting his easy-going grin at me.

"Mornin' Sonny."

I smiled in response, fighting the burning impatience to get the day started. Jackson glanced at his phone on the end table and picked it up. He stifled another yawn as he flicked it on. I held my arms out in front of me and starting a calming series of stretches to loosen my tendons and stop from raging out at Jackson. I wanted to get _moving_. Jackson made an odd noise and I looked over at him.

"Well, fuck." He said, staring at his phone, "The Fuentes found out about you and are on their way. They'll be here later tonight."

I let out a hiss of annoyance. Not what I wanted to deal with right now. Or ever. Yes, not dealing with it ever and just leaving Terra instead, sounded much better. I crossed my arms.

Jackson took Stark's paper off the table and shot me another grin, "You're being awfully patient." I snorted, he chuckled in return before saying, "Let's give Stark a call and see about getting you in touch with your guy."

I rolled my eyes at him. Kraglin wasn't _mi_\- oh wait. I _did_ mark him, he kind of _was_ mine. Odd to think about, now. I heard the sound of a strange buzzing coming from Jackson's phone, followed by a woman, (Pepper? Was that her name?) answering for Stark. Jackson quickly explained the situation, as though he was afraid that if he went on too long they'd stop listening and disconnect him. Maybe she would, who knows? After a few seconds he was placed on 'hold,' whatever the fuck that was.

I couldn't stand it anymore and I stood up. Giving my legs a stretch of their own, I started to pace around the living quarters. I felt so useless and like there should be more that I could do to help the situation. Jackson had a rather short exchange with Stark before he took the pad away from his face and set it back on the table. I stopped my pacing and stared at him expectantly. Jackson shrugged.

"He simply said that he'd 'let them know.'"

"Who?" I asked, blankly. It couldn't be Nova, could it?

Jackson shrugged again, "He chose not to share that with me. Kind of sucks, I was hoping to meet him…"

It was my turn to shrug, "He's not all that great." I paused, "A bit full of himself."

That got a small chuckle out of Jackson, as though this wasn't new to him. He gave another stretch before standing up and heading in the direction of the bathroom. Which now that I thought about, I needed to hit as well before we started whatever we were going to do that day. Did Jackson even stop in and say 'Hi' to our father? Knowing him, he didn't and headed straight towards this building to see me. I felt a slight warmth in my chest as I thought of how my brother missed and loved me and realized how much I loved him in return. I was so glad to have him by my side again. When I was younger I used to wish beyond wishes that he was there then, but once I grew older, I realized that he never would have survived. It was only my age and gender that saved me most of the time from flat-out execution. I must have had more lucky stars than I'd first counted.

Jackson looked much more awake and fresh when he exited the bathroom. Even after the sleepless night (not like I wasn't used to those, anyways) I was sure that I looked like hell in return, but that was never really something that I cared about anyways. Regardless, splashed some water on my face and wiped it with a towel to remove some of the grime I'd picked up since my last shower. I studied my appearance in the mirror above the sink. I looked worn out, but alert. My eyes were a dark gold that almost looked brown, which when I leaned in closer, I could see the flecks of green trying to make themselves seen. Huh, Kraglin was right about my eyes. Weird.

I looked down the length of my braid, debating undoing it to brush it again, but deciding against it. I didn't want to spend this time doing something so menial. I felt like everything I was to do today would have some significant importance. It didn't help that I was nervous. As stupid as it sounds, _nervous_. I gave myself a small sound of annoyance before exiting the bathroom. I found Jackson standing near the door with his coat and boots on, waiting for me. I grabbed my own jacket as I slipped on my boots and tightened them enough just to hold them on and we started walking towards the main house.

"I really need some coffee and these jokers seem to be out of it," Jackson sighed.

"You'd think that Ethan would be on top of that," I pointed out.

"Right?" Jackson laughed, "They probably used it all up this morning."

"No, Ethan spent all of his time getting Marcus and Jasper out of bed," I replied. They'd all come down the stairs together as a group, and went straight out the door. "Either that, or they didn't want to wake us up."

Jackson shot me a look, "How do you know?"

"I heard them," I responded. At Jackson's look, I cringed a little, "I was awake all night, there was a lot on my mind."

Jackson gave a small grunt and looked away. We were going up the back steps of the main house at this time and Jackson slid open the door and stepped aside to let me through. I thought this really odd behavior as I was more than capable of opening a door myself, but nonetheless, walked through it. I looked over into the dining room and saw my father and Desiré sitting at the table. My father's back was to us, however, _she_ saw us the second we approached and was on us before we'd even taken off our boots.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Desiré asked Jackson, point-blank. I guess they got along as great as her and I did. Which was amusing to me.

"Don't take that tone with me," he sniped back. I grinned at Jackson's antagonizing of her. Desiré's mouth slightly opened in what might have been shock, before letting out a sound of disgust and turning away.

This slight exchange had gotten my father's attention as he turned around and froze. Again. I don't remember this much catching him off-guard when I was younger and I briefly wondered what was going through his head.

"Hey Pops!" Jackson grinned, as though never leaving. I shrugged a greeting at my father and proceeded to pad around to the other side of the counter where there was a pitcher of coffee waiting.

I should have hesitated before pouring myself a full mug, giving my last experience with the stuff, but it gave me something to do as an excuse to ignore the awkward tension between my father and my brother. Jackson clearly wanted to pretend like his absence meant nothing, which come to think of it, would be great if they could just do the same for me and I could leave without a fuss.

"How have you been?" The strain in my father's voice was really starting to show. We'd put him through too much in the last couple of days and a small wave of guilt swept over me. If I hadn't acted like an idiot when Kraglin and I got arrested, none of this would have happened and he would still think I were dead. Which might be better for them all. Instead, I had to show up, cause a scene, summon some other clan- Wait. The other clan.

"What does this other clan want?" I blurted out. My father turned his face back to me, a look of confusion on his face. I crossed my arms and leaned back against the counter, locking eyes with my Alpha.

At my expression, my father hardened his gaze. "They've come to see that their demands are met."

He paused, an expectant look on his face. I recalled an earlier mention of The Fuentes.

"They want me for their son." I said bluntly.

My father nodded and Jackson gave a scoff of disgust.

"Can't they just leave her be for a bit? Good God, she's been out in space for twenty-two years!" He snarled angrily, his face clouded with emotion.

My father shot a look at Jackson from over his shoulder. Jackson didn't even flinch as our father's eyes threatened to tear him a new one. I was getting a little tired of this display. I just wanted to contact someone from the Galactic community, reunite with Kraglin and go back to stupidly blowing holes in the wrong target as I struggled with a plasma gun.

"Can't you just send them a message to head them off?" I snapped.

My father shook his head, "No, they will be here by the evening and they don't intend to leave until a Mating ceremony has been performed."

I felt my blood boil at the thought of being mated to a complete stranger for life. The anger surged and twisted, bubbling up to the surface as I let out a hiss, feeling my ears erupt from my scalp and flatten against my skull in anger. I instinctively gripped the counter tighter and heard a crunch as the granite cracked. I stood straighter, let out a huffed growl and whirled around to walk to the front part of the house, the urge to move ruling my actions.

I stalked into the front room, my eyes sweeping across the lightly colored couches and the curved-back cushioned chairs. I felt my anger surge again, thinking of how they expected me to just accept this life and was overwhelmed with disgust. Before getting more riled up, I stormed to the front door, ripped it open and stepped outside. I turned instantly to the right and rested my hand upon the laid stone, stacked so perfectly. I ran my hand over the rough edge, a memory trying to surface.

Without thinking, I kicked my boots off and shifted my paws, climbing the stone front of the house as I went. Reaching the rooftop, I scanned across it, yearning my memories to tell me what I was doing here. I wandered around for a few seconds, until I found my nook. A part in the roof where the uneven surfaces came together to form a small little cubby, just big enough for a small kit to curl up in. Suddenly, I was awash with memories of the day I was kidnapped.

I'd fled here on that day too. Although, in those days, I had to take a more indirect route to get here as I hadn't learned that I could partial-shift then. Gunnar had just verbally torn into me, his pain and grief at the loss of our mother directed at me in a frenzy of hurtful words and misplaced blame. Tears threatened to start blurring my vision so I gave my head a violent shake and took a deep breath to clear my head for a minute. I had to focus on what I could do _now_.

My flickered in a direction off to my left as I heard scrabbling from a different part of the roof. My eyes narrowed and I crept closer as a ringed hand popped up over the gutter and tried to find purchase on the shingles. I took the hand and pulled Jackson onto the roof with me.

"Thought you'd be here," Jackson smiled as he sat down, legs dangling over the edge. I sat next to him, nervously fiddling with my thumbs; a new habit for me, I realized.

"Just, trying to figure out what I can do right now," I confessed.

Jackson leaned back on his elbows and shot me a lazy smile.

"Want to go get incredibly trashed later?"

"Now that," I smiled, "is something I can do."

**A bit short, I think. I honestly don't remember. I might need to reread some chapter inorder to refind Sonia's voice. So I'm sorry if it seems a bit... off. Thank you for your never ending patience.**

**~F2tM**


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